ss Atlantic.

CHAPTER SIX.

DESCRIBES THE PRESENTATION OF A NEW LIFEBOAT TO COVELLY, AND TREATS OF
THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION.

We must now change the scene, and beg our readers to accompany us once
more to Covelly, where, not long after the events narrated in the last
chapter, an interesting ceremony was performed, which called out the
inhabitants in vast numbers. This was the presentation of a new
lifeboat to the town, and the rewarding of several men who had recently
been instrumental in saving life in circumstances of peculiar danger.

The weather was propitious. A bright sun and a calm sea rejoiced the
eyes of the hundreds who had turned out to witness the launch. The old
boat, which had saved our heroine years before, and had rescued many
more since that day from the angry sea, was worn out, and had to be
replaced by one of the magnificent new boats built on the self-righting
principle, which had but recently been adopted by the Lifeboat
Institution. A lady of the neighbourhood, whose only daughter had been
saved by the old boat some time before, had presented the purchase-money
of the new one (400 pounds) to the Institution; and, with the
promptitude which characterises all the movements of that Society, a
fine self-righting lifeboat, with all the latest improvements, had been
sent at once to the port.

High on her carriage, in the centre of the town, the new lifeboat
stood--gay and brilliant in her blue and white paint, the crew with
their cork lifebelts on, and a brass band in front, ready to herald her
progress to the shore. The mayor of the town, with all the principal
men, headed the procession, and a vast concourse of people followed. At
the shore the boat was named the _Rescue_ by the young lady whose life
had been saved by the old one, and amid the acclamations of the vast
multitude, the noble craft was shot off her carriage into the calm sea,
where she was rowed about for a considerable time, and very critically
examined by her crew; for, although the whole affair was holiday-work to
most of those who looked on, the character of the new boat was a matter
of serious import to those who manned her, and who might be called on to
risk their lives in her every time their shores should be lashed by a
stormy sea.

Our hero, Harry Boyns, held the steering oar. He had been appointed by
the parent Institution to the position of "Local Secretary of the
Covelly Lifeboat Branch," and, o