th threw aboard a bag of bread. I took
the precaution of taking a good drink of water before we started, so I
suffered no inconvenience from thirst."

Mrs. Lucien Smith, whose young husband perished, was another heroine. It
is related by survivors that she took turns at the oars, and then, when
the boat was in danger of sinking, stood ready to plug a hole with her
finger if the cork stopper became loose.

In another boat Mrs. Cornell and her sister, who had a slight knowledge
of rowing, took turns at the oars, as did other women.

The boat in which Mrs. J. J. Brown, of Denver, Col., was saved contained
only three men in all, and only one rowed. He was a half-frozen seaman
who was tumbled into the boat at the last minute. The woman wrapped him
in blankets and set him at an oar to start his blood. The second man was
too old to be of any use. The third was a coward.

Strange to say, there was room in this boat for ten other people. Ten
brave men would have received the warmest welcome of their lives if they
had been there. The coward, being a quartermaster and the assigned head
of the boat, sat in the stern and steered. He was terrified, and the
women had to fight against his pessimism while they tugged at the oars.

The women sat two at each oar. One held the oar in place, the other did
the pulling. Mrs. Brown coached them and cheered them on. She told them
that the exercise would keep the chill out of their veins, and she spoke
hopefully of the likelihood that some vessel would answer the wireless
calls. Over the frightful danger of the situation the spirit of this
woman soared.

THE PESSIMIST

And the coward sat in his stern seat, terrified, his tongue loosened
with fright. He assured them there was no chance in the world. He had
had fourteen years' experience, and he knew. First, they would have
to row one and a half miles at least to get out of the sphere of the
suction, if they did not want to go down. They would be lost, and nobody
would ever find them.

"Oh, we shall be picked up sooner or later," said some of the braver
ones. No, said the man, there was no bread in the boat, no water; they
would starve--all that big boatload wandering the high seas with nothing
to eat, perhaps for days.

"Don't," cried Mrs. Brown. "Keep that to yourself, if you feel that way.
For the sake of these women and chil-dren, be a man. We have a smooth
sea and a fighting chance. Be a man."

But the coward only knew that ther