Launch the lifeboat!

THE LIFEBOAT-MAN'S RETURN—THE WELCOME HOME.

THE LIGHTHOUSE.

SAVED FROM THE WRECK.

SAVED BY A DOG.

HOISTING THE SIGNAL.

CRADLED IN HIS CALLING.

FATHER'S JOY.

LAUNCH THE LIFEBOAT!

WHEN I was a boy I thought August was the happiest month in the year. I liked December too, for Christmas came in it, with the Christmas-tree and all sorts of good things. July was almost as nice, for my birthday was on the sixteenth, and I always had a tableful of presents. But, after all, there was no month like August, for in August we always went to the sea-side.

What fun we had through that holiday month! There is something in the sea which always makes me feel in good spirits. When the waves come rolling in and dash over the rocks, when the sea birds fly overhead, with their strange cries, when the white foam on the shore sparkles in the sunshine, even now that I have some gray hairs in my head, I feel quite young again, and ready to skip for joy.

I felt very wild the day I first spoke to old Jonah. Hilda and I had been running on the rocks looking for crabs and sea anemones, and Daisy had been paddling in a shallow sandy pool, and filling her little bucket with water. It was a fresh, bright, windy day, and there was not a cloud on the sky.

"Mother," said Hilda, as we sat down to rest, "what is that big bell hanging between two posts near the coast-guard's house? Daisy calls it the sailors' dinner-bell."

Somebody laughed when Hilda said that, and we looked round and saw Jonah standing near us. He was an old fisherman whom we had often seen walking on the beach, but we had never spoken to him before.

"Dinner-bell, little Missy?" he said. "Begging your pardon for hearing what you was saying—dinner-bell, did ye say? It's a funny kind of a dinner that bell rings for! What do you think they give us for dinner when that bell calls us? Not roast beef and plum-pudding, I can tell you!"

"Is it soup?" asked Daisy in a melancholy voice. For Daisy did not like soup, and always looked very dismal when it appeared on the table.

Then old Jonah laughed more than ever, and asked us if we thought salt water and sea-weed would make good soup.

"But," said he, "if you want to hear an old sailor's yarn, come down under the shelter of the fishing-boats to-morrow morning, when I'm mending my nets, and I'll tell you the story of the last time that bell rang."

"Did you ever see Mother Carey's chickens, Missy?" said old Jonah, as we sat down beside him, the next day.

"No," said Hilda, "we don't know many people here. Does Mother Carey live in one of the cottages near the shore?"

Oh, how old Jonah laughed then!

"No, I couldn't tell you where she lives," he said; "nor who she is neither, for the matter of that."

"Did you ever see her chickens then, Jonah?" said I.

"Ay, many a time, my boy," he said. "I'll tell you what we sailors mean by Mother Carey's chickens. They are sea birds which come when there's going to be a storm, and fly low over the water. We never like to see them: we know there's bad weather coming when she sends her chickens out. I never knew Mother Carey send us so many chickens as she did on that afternoon I'm going to tell you about. My little lad and lass were playing on the beach, and they came running home to say they thought Mother Carey must be cleaning her hen-house, and had turned all her chickens out at once."

"'It's going to be a rough night, Polly,' said I to my old woman; and I went out on the pier yonder to have a bit of a chat with Peter. He's our old coastguard man is Peter, Master Stanley. You must go and see him some day."

"Peter was very busy with his glass looking over the water to see if any ships were in sight. Ay, little Missy, I wish you could have seen the waves that evening as the sun went down; they came tearing in like great roaring lions. Peter and I were nearly carried off our feet by the wind. Then, as we stood on the pier, there came a great crash and we saw that the farther end of it had been broken down, and the waves were rolling the big blocks of stone about as if they were your little marbles, Master Stanley."

"Well, as it grew dark, the storm got worse, till at last, the waves came right over the top of the harbour and dashed against our cottage wall."

"Do you know our cottage, Miss Hilda?"

"Stand up, and you can see it. There it is, just above the harbour. Well, you see how far below it the sea is now. But that night, the waves swept across the road between our cottage and the harbour, and the spray beat against the bed-room windows! I ran home to see if Polly was frightened, and Peter called after me, 'Keep your ears open for the bell, Jonah; there'll be mischief to-night, I'll be bound.'"

"Poor Polly was baling out water from the kitchen, and the children were standing at the top of the stairs watching her."

"'Oh, Jonah,' she said, 'what a fearful night!'"

"'I do hope you won't have to go out with the boat, my lad,' says Granny. (That's my old mother; she's been dead a many years, Master Stanley.)"

"Granny had no sooner said the words than we heard the clattering of horse's hoofs coming down the hill and up the street at the side of our house."

"'There's somebody in a mighty hurry,' said Polly."

"'Listen! Hush!' I said, as the children were talking to each other."

"Nothing was to be heard at first but the roaring of the wind and waves. And then clear above them all we heard the ringing of Peter's bell!"

"Polly turned as white as a sheet, and old Granny began to cry. For we knew well enough what that bell meant. Some poor ship was in distress, and we must take the lifeboat out."

"'Oh, my lad,' said Granny, 'she can never weather such a sea as this!'"

"'Cheer up, old mother,' said I; 'cheer up, Polly, my lass; please God, we'll save some of them poor souls.'"

"I lost not a moment getting ready, and only stopped to kiss Polly and Granny and the children. Maybe I should never kiss them again, I said to myself."

"'Father,' said my little lass, 'here's a present for you;' and she put in my hand a little bit of newspaper, tied up with blue wool. I had no time to look inside, but I gave her a kiss, and tucked it inside my shirt, and off I went as fast as I could run to Peter's shed."