Mrs. O. F. Walton

“ Jonah,' she says; 'the Bible isn't going away.'"
"'But you make it so plain, my dear,' says Granny; 'even an old body like me can take it in.'"
"Well, then she looked quite serious, and she says, as grave as can be, 'There's a better Teacher than me, Mr. Jonah. The Holy Spirit will make it all plain to you. My mother told me never to read the Bible without saying this little prayer:'"
"'"O God, send Thy Holy Spirit to teach me, for Jesus Christ's sake.
Amen."'"
"She said her mother had written it for her in her own little Bible that was lost in the wreck, Miss Hilda. ”

“ She would get Polly's old Testament every night and read to us as we sat over the fire, and tell us what her mother said about the texts. I learnt more from that little lass than I ever knew before."
"I shall never forget one evening, Master Stanley; I had been telling her all about that terrible night when I fetched her from the wreck."
"'Weren't you very frightened, Mr. Jonah?' she says—she always called me Mr. Jonah, bless her!" ”

“ We never like to see them: we know there's bad weather coming when she sends her chickens out. I never knew Mother Carey send us so many chickens as she did on that afternoon I'm going to tell you about. My little lad and lass were playing on the beach, and they came running home to say they thought Mother Carey must be cleaning her hen-house, and had turned all her chickens out at once."
"'It's going to be a rough night, Polly,' said I to my old woman; and I went out on the pier yonder to have a bit of a chat with Peter. He's our old coastguard man is Peter, Master Stanley. ”

“ But He wasn't vexed with them, my dear; He says as gentle as could be, 'It is I; be not afraid.'"
"And then Peter must be off to Him; he isn't afraid of anything, isn't Peter. Up he jumps, and 'Lord' he cries, 'let me come to Thee on the water.' And the Lord says, 'Come.' And he gets on fine at first, Master Stanley; away he walks on the sea, as if he was on the pier there. But then what does he do but lose heart, and looks at the big waves, and then—down he goes."
"'You see, Mr. Jonah,' says the little lass, 'he never sank while he kept looking at Jesus.'"
"'No, my dear,' says I, 'he didn't ”

“ I'm getting an old man now, and I've been in the boat a many years, and I sometimes think I'm getting near the shore. And I seem to see Polly waiting for me—she and Jess and Granny standing side by side looking out for me coming. They are all there now, Miss Hilda, and they're waiting for me as they waited for me that night."
"And Jess will dance for joy, and Polly will say 'Thank God!' and Granny will say 'Amen,' when the Lifeboat lands me ashore."
SAVED FROM THE WRECK.
The sky was clear, and cloudless. ”

“ To spread the news around:
That every man of us was there,
That all were safe and sound.
HOISTING THE SIGNAL.
And each man on the island,
Both near and far away,
Came over to pat Neptune's head
For his good work that day. ”

“ But Peter had sent off for a steam-tug lying a bit farther up the coast, and as soon as she came up and took us in tow, we began to make way."
"You know, Miss Hilda, our lifeboat; she's not like these other boats you see about; she's made as light as she can be, and her sides are filled with air, so that she rises like a cork to the top of the sea."
STEAM-TUG TOWING THE LIFEBOAT.
"The water flowed into the boat, and over her, but still she floated. ”

“ It was so thick, for a time it seemed impossible to find her, but we could hear the sound of rockets in the distance, and we caught now and then a gleam of light through the darkness."
"You'll have seen the rockets, maybe, Master Stanley?"
"Yes, we always have rockets on the Fifth of November," said Hilda; "we had two dozen last year."
THE ROCKET APPARATUS.
"They are very useful things are rockets in our work, little. Missy. We fasten a thin cord to them and fire them over the ship in distress. Peter will show you the boxes we keep our lines in. ”

“ Polly took her from a neighbour's arms, and brought her to meet me."
"Oh, what a meeting we all had, Miss Hilda, down there on the shore! It was almost like getting me back from the dead, Polly said, for she never expected to see me again. And Father's Magpie put her wee arms round my neck and screamed for joy, and Jess and Harry danced round me and clapped their hands, and Polly said 'Thank God!' and old Granny wound up with 'Amen.'"
THE LIFEBOAT-MAN'S RETURN—THE WELCOME HOME.
"But we'd had no time to think of ourselves, Master Stanley. ”

“ FIRING THE ROCKET.
"Well, as I said, they were busy with the rockets when we got near, and we made in the direction in which we saw them going. Suddenly there came a bright light, Master Stanley, and then we saw it all. It was a flare which some sailor on board the sinking ship was holding up to show us where they lay."
SHOWING A FLARE.
"We had got very near them by this time, and when that light showed us where they were, it was enough to make us shudder. ”

“ And when at last they saw the steamer making for the pier, they, and the old sailors standing with them, and all the wives and lasses of the other men, raised such a shout of joy that we heard it, Master Stanley, above the raging of the storm. I often seem to hear that shout in my dreams even now."
FRIENDS IN DISTRESS.
"But poor Polly wasn't happy yet. Maybe the boat's coming, but not Jonah, she thought. And Granny caught hold of her shawl and cried 'Look, Polly, my dear, is my lad aboard, dost thou think?' It was Jess that first caught sight of me, bless her. ”

“ Then the rocket is fired, and the line is shot quickly out of the box, and it never stands a chance of getting tangled or knotted. Then as soon as the lads on board the sinking ship manage to catch hold of the line they draw it in, and we fasten to the end of it a strong stout cable, and many a poor fellow we get in that way. ”