y in his
capacious bosom.

As he speaks, the lifebuoy arrives again with a jovial sort of swing, as
if it had been actually warmed into life by its glorious work, and had
come out of its own accord.

"Now, then, lads; hold on steady!" says Dick, getting in, "for fear you
hurt the babby. This is the first time that Dick Shales has appeared on
any stage wotsomediver in the character of a woman!"

Dick smiles in a deprecating manner at his little joke as they haul him
off the wreck. But Dick is wrong, and his mates feel this as they cheer
him, for many a time before that had he appeared in woman's character
when woman's work had to be done.

The captain was right when he muttered that the mother would be "soon
happy again." When Dick placed the baby--wet, indeed, but well--in its
mother's arms, she knew a kind of joy to which she had been a stranger
before--akin to that joy which must have swelled the grateful heart of
the widow of Nain when she received her son back from the dead.

The rest of the work is soon completed. After the last woman is drawn
ashore the crew are quickly rescued--the captain, of course, like every
true captain, last of all. Thus the battle is waged and won, and
nothing is left but a shattered wreck for wind and waves to do their
worst upon.

The rescued ones are hurried off to the nearest inn, where sympathetic
Christian hearts and hands minister to their necessities. These are
directed by the local agent for that admirable institution, the
Shipwrecked Fishermen's and Mariners' Society--a society which cannot be
too highly commended, and which, it is well to add, is supported by
voluntary subscriptions.

Meanwhile the gallant men of the coastguard, rejoicing in the feeling
that they have done their duty so well and so successfully, though wet
and weary from long exposure and exertion, pack the rocket apparatus
into its cart, run it back to its place of shelter, to be there made
ready for the next call to action, and then saunter home, perchance to
tell their wives and little ones the story of the wreck and rescue,
before lying down to take much-needed and well-earned repose.

Let me say in conclusion that hundreds of lives are saved in this manner
_every_ year. It is well that the reader should bear in remembrance
what I stated at the outset, that the Great War is unceasing. Year by
year it is waged. There is no prolonged period of rest. There is no
time when we should forget th