alf, one
portion, with the greater number of crew and passengers, being swept
away immediately. The remaining portion, the fore part of the vessel,
was firmly fixed upon the rock. Here the shivering survivors clung all
that stormy day, the waves dashing over them continually. The captain
and his wife were washed overboard, clasped in each others' arms; and
two little children, a boy of eight and a girl of eleven years of age,
died from exposure and the relentless buffeting of the waves, their
distracted mother clasping them by the hand long after life was extinct.
To a terrible day succeeded a yet more terrible night.

"Scarce the cliffs of the islets, scarce the walls of Joyous Gard
Flash to sight between the deadlier lightnings of the sea;
Storm is lord and master of a midnight evil-starred,
Nor may sight nor fear discern what evil stars may be."

Until the morning they endured; and in the stormy dawn the keeper of the
Longstone lighthouse, William Darling, and his daughter Grace saw them
huddled in a shivering heap upon the wave-swept fragments of the wreck.
The girl begged her father to try to save them, and to allow her to help
in the task, and after some natural hesitation he consented. The
brave-hearted mother helped them to launch the boat, and they set forth.

[Illustration: The Wreck of the "Forfarshire"]

"Sire and daughter, hand on oar and face against the night.
Maid and man whose names are beacons ever to the north.
...... all the madness of the stormy surf
Hounds and roars them back, but roars and hounds them back in vain.

Not our mother, not Northumberland, brought ever forth.
Though no southern shore may match the sons that kiss her mouth,
Children worthier all the birthright given of the ardent north,
Where the fire of hearts outburns the suns that fire the south."

They reached the rock, where nine persons were still
clinging to the wreck, and

"Life by life the man redeems them, head by storm-worn head,
While the girl's hand stays the boat whereof the waves are fain."

With five of the exhausted survivors the boat returned to the Longstone;
and two of the men went back with William Darling for the other four.
All were safely housed in the lighthouse and tended by the noble family
of the Darlings; but the storm raged for several days longer, and made
it impossible for them to be put ashore. When at length they returned to
their homes, and the story of the re