influence was limited, and their
occurrence soon forgotten.

We would not be understood to mean that "now" (as compared with "then"),
all is right and well; that telegraphs and railways and daily papers are
all-potent and perfect. By no means. We have still much to learn and
to do in these improved times; and, especially, there is wanting to a
large extent among us a sympathetic telegraphy, so to speak, between the
interior of our land and the sea-coast, which, if it existed in full and
vigorous play, would go far to improve our condition, and raise us in
the esteem of Christian nations. Nevertheless, as compared with now,
the state of things then was lamentably imperfect.

The great storm came and went, having swept thousands of souls into
eternity, and hundreds of thousands of pounds into nonentity. Lifeboats
had not been invented. Harbours of refuge were almost unknown, and
although our coasts bristled with dangerous reefs and headlands,
lighthouses were few and far between. The consequence was, that wrecks
were numerous; and so also were wreckers,--a class of men, who, in the
absence of an efficient coastguard, subsisted to a large extent on what
they picked up from the wrecks that were cast in their way, and who did
not scruple, sometimes, to _cause_ wrecks, by showing false lights in
order to decoy vessels to destruction.

We do not say that all wreckers were guilty of such crimes, but many of
them were so, and their style of life, at the best, had naturally a
demoralising influence upon all of them.

The famous Bell Rock, lying twelve miles off the coast of Forfarshire,
was a prolific source of destruction to shipping. Not only did numbers
of vessels get upon it, but many others ran upon the neighbouring coasts
in attempting to avoid it.

Ruby's father knew the navigation well, but, in the confusion and
darkness of the furious storm, he miscalculated his position and ran
upon the rock, where, as we have seen, his body was afterwards found by
the two fishermen. It was conveyed by them to the cottage of Mrs
Brand, and when Ruby entered he found his mother on her knees by the
bedside, pressing the cold hand of his father to her breast, and gazing
with wild, tearless eyes into the dead face.

We will not dwell upon the sad scenes that followed.

Ruby was now under the necessity of leaving home, because his mother
being deprived of her husband's support naturally turned in distress to
her son. But Ru