t starting for one, and shall be pleased to
have your company."

"I'd like to go to Tom Never's Head, papa," said Max.

"Oh, so should I!" cried Lulu.

"I believe they call the distance from here about two miles," remarked
the captain reflectively; "but such a walk before breakfast in this
bracing air I presume will not damage children as strong and healthy as
these two of mine," regarding them with a fond, fatherly smile. "So come
along, we will try it."

He took Lulu's hand, and the three wended their way southward along
Sunset Heights, greatly enjoying the sight of the ocean, its waves
glittering and dancing in the brilliant sunlight, their booming sound as
they broke along the beach and the exhilarating breeze blowing fresh and
pure from them.

"This is a very dangerous coast," the captain remarked, "especially in
winter, when it is visited by fierce gales; a great many vessels have
been wrecked on Nantucket coast."

"Yes, papa," said Max; "I heard a story the other day of a ship that was
wrecked the night before Christmas, eight or ten years ago, on this
shore. Nobody knew that a ship was near until the next morning, when
pieces of wreck, floating barrels, and dead bodies were cast up on the
beach.

"They found that one man had got to land alive; they knew it because he
was quite a distance from the beach, though entirely dead when they
found him. You see there was just one farmhouse in sight from the scene
of the disaster, and they had alight that night because somebody was
sick; and they supposed the man saw the light and tried to reach it, but
was too much exhausted by fatigue and the dreadful cold, for it seemed
his clothes had all been torn off him by the waves; he was stark naked
when found, and lying on the ground, which showed that he had struggled
hard to get up after falling down upon it.

"I think they said the ship was called the Isaac Newton, was loaded with
barrels of coal-oil, and bound for Holland."

"What a terrible death!" Lulu said with a shudder, and clinging more
tightly to her father's hand; "every one drowned and may be half frozen
for hours before they died. Oh, papa, I wish you didn't belong to the
navy, but lived all the time on land! I am so afraid your ship will be
wrecked some time," she ended with a sob.

"It is not only upon the water that people die by what we call accident,
daughter," the captain answered; "many horrible deaths occur on
land--many to which drowning woul