As might be expected, his violin won him friends among all of the music
lovers on board ship, and life for Barry began once more to be bearable.
Returning strength, however, recalled him to the performance of
his duties as chaplain, and straightway in the exercise of what he
considered his duty, he came into conflict with no less a personage than
the sergeant major himself. The trouble arose over his batman, Harry
Hobbs.
Harry was a man who, in his youthful days, had been a diligent patron of
the London music halls, and in consequence had become himself an amateur
entertainer of very considerable ability. His sailor's hornpipes, Irish
jigs, his old English North-country ballads and his coster songs were an
unending joy to his comrades. Their gratitude and admiration took forms
that proved poor Harry's undoing, and besides some of them took an
unholy joy in sending the chaplain's batman to his officer incapable of
service.
Barry's indignation and grief were beyond words. He dealt faithfully
with the erring Hobbs, as his minister, as his officer, as chaplain, but
the downward drag of his environment proved too great for his batman's
powers of resistance.
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