d coal, the
staircase leading to the sleeping-rooms above, and at the very top the
small ladder leading to the cupola on the roof, where the lookout kept
watch on clear days for incoming steamers. On their return Mulligan
spread a white oil-cloth on the pine table and put out a china plate
filled with some cake that he had baked the night before, and which
Green supplemented by a pitcher of water from the cistern.

Each one did something to please her. Archie handed her the biggest
piece of cake on the dish, and Uncle Isaac left the room in a hurry and
stumbling upstairs went through his locker and hauled out the head of a
wooden doll which he had picked up on the beach in one of his day
patrols and which he had been keeping for one of his
grand-children--all blighted with the sun and scarred with salt water,
but still showing a full set of features, much to Ellen's delight; and
Sam Green told her of his own little girl, just her age, who lived up
in the village and whom he saw every two weeks, and whose hair was just
the color of hers. Meanwhile the doctor chatted with the men, and Jane,
with her arm locked in Archie's, so proud and so tender over him,
inspected each appointment and comfort of the house with
ever-increasing wonder.

And so, with the visit over, the gig was loaded up, and with Ellen
waving her hand to the men and kissing her finger-tips in true French
style to the captain and Archie, and the crew responding in a hearty
cheer, the party drove, past the old House of Refuge, and so on back to
Warehold and Yardley.

One August afternoon, some days after this visit, Tod stood in the door
of the Station looking out to sea. The glass had been falling all day
and a dog-day haze had settled down over the horizon. This, as the
afternoon advanced, had become so thick that the captain had ordered
out the patrols, and Archie and Green were already tramping the
beach--Green to the inlet and Archie to meet the surfmen of the station
below. Park, who was cook this week, had gone to the village for
supplies, and so the captain and Tod were alone in the house, the
others, with the exception of Morgan, who was at his home in the
village with a sprained ankle, being at work some distance away on a
crosshead over which the life-line was always fired in gun practice.

Suddenly Tod, who was leaning against the jamb of the door speculating
over what kind of weather the night would bring, and wondering whether
the worst of