eces.

"Hoist away!" cried the coxswain.

A few strokes with an axe severed the cable, the foresail filled, and
away we dashed through the foaming seas, passing so close to the wreck
that I thought our mast-head must have struck her bowsprit.

Fourteen human beings had been saved; and with our rescued freight on
board we stood towards the harbour. Scarcely had we got clear of the
wreck than the remaining mast and the bowsprit went. Had any delay
occurred, all those fourteen of our fellow-creatures would have lost
their lives. How long we had been away I could not tell, but it
appeared like a lifetime to me. I saw that the day was waning, and it
would be long still before we could get back safe to land. The gale
blew as fiercely as at first, and the seas which occasionally washed
over us seemed to threaten our destruction. We could dimly see the
land; but the lifeboat crew knew well where they were going; and they
now did what they could to relieve the sufferings of the shipwrecked
seamen by handing them the flasks of restoratives, with which they had
come provided.

Had I gone out with papa's leave, I should have been delighted to see
the gallant deed I had witnessed. As it was, I could not help being
secretly pleased, though now, strange to say, as the danger decreased,
and I had time to think again of my friends, I earnestly longed to be
safe on shore.

At last we caught sight of the lights at the mouth of the river, towards
which the boat was making her way, although we had to go a long distance
round to reach it. I was, of course, wet through, and cold and faint
from want of food, though I felt no hunger. The light grew higher and
nearer. The wind was at last brought on the quarter, and on the
lifeboat flew. I felt her lifted by a monster sea, then down she came,
and was the next instant in comparatively quiet water.

Loud cheers greeted us from the shore, which were heartily answered by
our crew.

We rushed on, the sails were lowered, and we were alongside the wharf.
I was so numbed and cold that I could not stand or spring out of the
boat; but I heard a voice, which I knew to be that of papa, shouting
out:

"Did you take off a boy with you?"

"Yes, sir; all right; here he is;" and the coxswain, lifting me up in
his arms, handed me to papa and Uncle Tom.

They neither of them said anything, but carried me to the boat, which
pulled off at once to the yacht. My teeth chattered with cold, so t