mell," chuckled Connie. "They always have some on
board the _Mary Ann_ to sell to the islanders--if they haven't the sense
to catch them themselves. We never need to buy any," she added, proudly.
"Uncle Tom keeps us supplied with all we want. Look!" she cried suddenly,
pointing to a small island which loomed directly ahead of them, looking
in the grey mist of evening like only a darker shadow against the
shifting background. "That's our island--see? And there's the light," she
added, as a sudden beacon flashed out at them, sending a ruddy light out
over the dark water.

"Oh, isn't it beautiful!" cried Billie rapturously. "Just think what it
must mean to the ships out at sea--that friendly light, beckoning to
them----"

"No, it doesn't--beckon, I mean," said Connie decidedly. "That's just
what it isn't for. It's to warn them to keep away or they'll be sorry."

"Is there so much danger?" asked Laura eagerly.

"I should say there is," Connie answered gravely. "In a storm especially.
You see, the water is very shallow around here and if a big ship runs in
too close to shore she's apt to get on a shoal. That isn't so bad in
clear weather--although a ship did get stuck on the shoal here not so
very long ago and she was pretty much damaged when they got her off. But
in a storm----"

"Yes," cried Billie impatiently.

"Why, Uncle Tom says," Connie was very serious, "that if a ship were
driven upon the shoal in a gale--and we have terrible storms around
here--it would probably come with such force that its bottom would be
pretty nearly crushed in and the people on board might die before any one
could get out there to rescue them."

"Oh, Connie, how dreadful!" cried Vi. Laura and Billie only stared at the
lighthouse tower as though fascinated, while the little boat came
steadily nearer to it.

"Has anything like that ever happened here, Connie?" asked Laura in an
awed voice.

"No," said Connie. "There was a terrible wreck here a long time
ago--before they built the lighthouse. But Uncle Tom says no one will
ever know just how many lives have been saved because of the good old
light. To hear him talk to it you would think it was alive."

"It is!" cried Billie, pointing excitedly as the great white globe that
held the light swung slowly around toward them. "Didn't you see that? It
winked at us!"

CHAPTER XV

CONNIE'S MOTHER

The steamer scraped agai