The surprise at the lock of the Grand Junction Canal was great indeed when a stranger boarded each of their vessels, and addressed them as though they were old acquaintance. It was evident at first that they did not take kindly to the new friend. There were suspicious looks, and such hints as, "There bees them as says we are awful bad, and as puts us down in them papers as is in the publics." The zeal of the good man was also a matter of jest with them; as when they saw the agility with which he sprang from the tow-path to the barge, and from boat to boat, one man said to the other, "he's a jumping Jack, he is." The readings from the Bible, appeals to conscience, and the gift of Testaments and illustrated publications, soon won a way to their hearts, and in the course of five months their "Tract Man" became a popular personage, and this is how the fact was discovered. Mr. Atkinson, late Mayor of Hull, who superintends the work, gave a tea to as many boatmen and their wives as happened upon a certain evening to be at the Brentford Junction, and two hundred and fifty, direct from their boats, assembled, and a rough company they appeared. Tea over, and justice was done to it, the meeting commenced by their host taking the chair, and he, after hearty words of Christian kindness, requested the man who was known to carry a Book with him to address them. This he did by telling them "that a few days before he had read something upon an old tea-pot in the Brighton Museum, which he would repeat to them,-- 'The loss of gold is much, The loss of health is more, The loss of Christ is such a loss That no man can restore!' "And then he explained to them the value of money, and the misfortune of losing it by accident, and the sin of losing it by drunkenness and vice. The value of health, and the folly of losing it by intemperance, smoking, and neglectful habits. The value, the preciousness of Christ as the Saviour of sinners, and the folly, the crime, of refusing the mercy of God by Him. The Book was then produced, and the words read solemnly, 'Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.'" Their Missionary was then called upon, and the boat people received him with a demonstration of delight. His speech was simple in words, but full of Christian affection for their souls, and of sympathy in the trials of their calling. It was evident that they received him as their own "parson man," as they drank in every word he uttered, and with a great noise expressed their delight with his speech. One of them indeed rose, and with a stammering tongue said, "that he was a waterway man, and like them all, he and his wife wanted to see him often in their cabin, to read to them from the good Bible, and to try and make them good, as he knew he was doing to some of them." At the close it was cheering to hear them trying with all their will to sing, "Tell me the Old, Old Story," and to notice their reverence during the closing prayer.