"I am very sure your lordship--I beg your pardon--you are not strong enough to do any heavy work," answered Dick, "especially in the sun. I must first make you a hat such as I wear, which will help to guard your head, and we will then, in the cool of the evening, begin work. We must first strip off the bark from the outside, then cut away the angles at the bows and stern. By-the-by, I have just remembered finding some books in an officer's chest, and though I cannot read them, as they are in French, they may amuse you while I am at work." "That is fortunate," exclaimed Lord Reginald. "Pray get the books, and let me have a look at them. I shall be very glad to read while you are at work, if you still insist on my not helping you." Dick hurried out to his store-room, and soon returned with several volumes. Two were on navigation, another on astronomy, and a fourth on natural history; but Lord Reginald found that the others were not such as were likely to prove edifying either to himself or Dick. He first took up one, and glancing over its pages, said, "Throw that into the fire." A second and a third were treated in the same way. He looked at the last more carefully, but finished by saying, "Let that go, too. I am very sure that it will be better not to read at all than to fill our minds with the evil thoughts such works as these are likely to create. I should at one time have been amused, and considered that there was no harm in perusing such tales. After being so mercifully preserved, I look at matters in a very different light. I am sure that allowing our minds to dwell on any such subjects as those books contained, is offensive to a pure and holy God. What would I not give for some really well-written books, and more than anything for a Bible, which, after all, as I have often heard my mother say, is the Book of books." "I have heard my mother say the same," observed Dick. "I am very thankful that you have put the temptation out of our way." "What else did you find in the chest?" asked Lord Reginald. "Some nautical instruments, which, although they are French, I dare say you know how to use," said Dick. "And,--how stupid I was not to think of it before!--some shirts and waistcoats and other articles of dress. I must get you to put them on at once, while I wash out your own linen: they will add much to your comfort, and though they may be damp, the sun will soon dry them." Dick immediately hung out the French officers' clothing, and then brought a clam-shell, larger than an ordinary foot-tub, full of water, that Lord Reginald might enjoy a bath, which he had hitherto been afraid of taking. "I feel quite like a new man!" exclaimed the young lord, after he had dressed himself. "If you will not let me work to-day, I hope by to-morrow to show that I can do something. It won't be for the want of will if I don't succeed."