n a shilling, and I have sometimes got as much as
five shillings a day. I have dived to the bottom of Clark's Bit hundreds
of times, and there are numbers of people at Castleford, at the present
day (1868), who recollect these youthful exploits, which took place
upwards of forty years ago. And I may add that, I have often had the
impression that but for that paint-brush I should never have been the
diver I afterwards became. God overruled these foolish acts, for good,
and what I did for mere pleasure and gain, prepared me to rescue
property and human life in after years.'

[Sidenote: HE DIVES INTO A SUNKEN VESSEL.]

We will mention one instance of his prowess in saving property, which is
well worthy of being recorded. 'The barque "Mulgrave Castle," says the
writer of the article in the _Shipwrecked Mariners' Magazine_, 'laden
with timber from the Baltic, was waterlogged in the Humber; there was in
the cabin of the vessel a small box containing money and papers which
the captain was anxious, if possible, to secure. Ellerthorpe dived into
the cabin, groped his way round it, and after two or three attempts
succeeded in bringing up the box and its contents.' This was in the year
1835. The writer of this sketch received the fact from an eye witness.

CHAPTER VI.

HIS METHOD OF RESCUING THE DROWNING.

For acts of pure, unselfish daring, in rescuing human life, the annals
of our friend need not shun comparison with those of any other man
within Her Majesty's dominion. It appears that, amid his wicked and
wayward career, he had a 'deep and unaccountable impression' that one
part of his mission into the world was to save human life. Beyond
dispute, one of the best swimmers of his time, he was never, after his
boyhood, satisfied with swimming as a mere art. It was naught to him if
it did not help to make his fellow men better, safer, and braver. It
will be seen that the first person he rescued from drowning _was his
own father_, and that event ever afterwards nerved him to do his best to
save his fellow-creatures. Indeed the desire to rescue the drowning
burnt in his soul with all the ardour of an absorbing passion. It was
the spring of his ready thoughts; it controlled his feelings and guided
his actions; it prompted him to face the greatest difficulties without
the least fear, and when in the midst of the most threatening dangers,
it enabled him to summon up a calmness and resolution that never failed.

[Sidenote: