’I was sitting with Mr. Nobbs (Benjamin Dudley the only other person present) when he said, “We have seen in our papers from Sydney the news of the death of your revered Father.”  He concluded that I must have known of it.

’How wonderful it seems to me that it did not come as a great shock.  I showed by my face (naturally) that I had not known before that God had taken him unto Himself, but I could answer quite calmly, “I thank God.  Do not be distressed at telling me suddenly, as you see you have done inadvertently.  I knew he could not live long.  We all knew that he was only waiting for Christ.”

’And, dear dear John and Fan, how merciful God has been!  The last part of his letter to me, of date June 25, only three days before his call came, so that I know (and praise God for it) that he was spared protracted suffering.  Shall I desire or wish to be more sorry than I am?  Shall I try to make myself grieve, and feel unhappy?  Oh, no; it is of God’s great mercy that I still feel happy and thankful, for I cannot doubt the depth of my love to him who has indeed been, and that more than ever of late, the one to whom I clung in the world.

’I could be quiet at night, sleeping in Mr. Nobbs’s house, and yet I could not at once compose myself to think it all over, as I desired to do.  And then I had much to do, and here was the joy mingling with the sorrow.

’For the Norfolk Island people have come to see how wise was the Primate’s original plan, and now they much desire to connect themselves more closely with the Mission.

’Mr. and Mrs. Nobbs desire their son Edwin, who was two years at the Governor’s at Sydney, and is now eighteen and a half years old, to be given wholly to us....  So said Simon Young of his boy Fisher, and so did three others.  All spoke simply, and without excitement, but with deep feeling.  I thought it right to say that they should remain at Norfolk Island at present, that we all might prove them whether they were indeed bent upon this work, that we might be able to trust that God had indeed called them.  To the lads I said, “This is a disappointment, I know, but it is good for you to have to bear trials.  You must take time to count the cost.  It is no light thing to be called to the work of a teacher among the heathen.  In giving up your present wish to go immediately, you are obeying your parents and others older than yourselves, and your cheerful obedience to them is the best evidence that you wish to act upon a sense of duty, and not only from impulse; but don’t think I wish to discourage you.  I thank Him who has put the good desire into your hearts.  Prove yourselves now by special prayer and meditation.”