re swept past,
and managed to reach it while Billy Brackett and Winn were away.

Now, by means of the skiff, others whose cries for help located them in
the darkness were picked up. Many persons had escaped soon after the
breaking out of the fire by means of the small boats and life-raft
carried by the packet; while still others, comprising nearly half the
ship's company, were lost. It was one the most terrible of the many
similar disasters recorded in the history of steamboating on the
Mississippi; and to this day the burning of the _Lytle_ is a favorite
theme of conversation among old river men.

When Glen Elting learned the name of the ill-fated craft, he started
and turned pale. "The very packet for which we were waiting!" he
cried, with bated breath. "Oh, Binney, how many things we have to be
thankful for!"

"Indeed we have," answered the boy; "and not the least of them is that
we are in a position to help these poor people, who have been overtaken
by the misfortune that was reaching out for us."

These two were tearing sheets into bandage strips, and dressing wounds
with the salve and ointments found in Major Caspar's medicine chest.
Solon was providing a plentiful supply of hot-water over a roaring fire
in the galley stove, and bustling about among the forlorn assembly,
that, drenched and shivering, had been so suddenly intrusted to his
kindly care. Billy Brackett and Winn rowed in every direction about
the raft so long as there was the slightest hope of picking up a
struggling swimmer.

Their last rescue was that of a man clinging to a state-room door, and
so benumbed with the chill of the water that in a few moments more his
hold must have relaxed. Beside him swam a dog, also nearly exhausted.

When the man was carried into the "shanty," the dog followed him, and
was there seen to be of the same markings and breed as the puppy saved
by Bim. Noting this, Winn hunted it up and brought it to her. It was
hers, and no human mother could have shown more extravagant joy than
did this dog mother at so unexpectedly finding one of her lost babies.
She actually cried with happiness, and fondled her little one until it
protested with all the strength of its feeble voice. Then she lay down
with the puppy cuddled close to her, and one paw thrown protectingly
across it, the picture of perfect content.

Bim had been almost as excited as she, and in spite of his burns, had
circled about the two, and barked unti