HASTE TO THE RESCUE!
"The ship had struck on some rocks about five miles away; so the farmer told us who had ridden over for the boat. He said the coastguardsmen over there had got the rockets out, and they were busy with them when he started. She was a big craft, and seemed to have a lot of men aboard her."
"As soon as we got the lifeboat to the water, we all jumped into her, and then came the hard struggle to get her off. As fast as we pulled her off from shore there came a great high wave, and dashed her in again."
"It was all of no use, Master Stanley; no power that we could use could get her off, and we should have had to give it up for a bad job, if we had only had our arms to trust to. 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. We seemed to be plunging through the waves the whole way. Then came a wave bigger than the rest, and broke over the boat, and quite buried her for a moment; but up she jumped and shook herself free, little beauty that she is!"
"And once, Master Stanley, there came a great breaker, rushing along, and catching her up, it threw her right over, and we were all sent headlong into the sea. I thought it was all up with us then; but in a minute she had righted herself again, and we in our cork-jackets had come to the top, and had clambered into her again, one after another, till all were there and ready to go on."
"Away, away, over the raging waves. I shall never forget it as long as I live. And all the way, Miss Hilda, my little Jessie's prayer was ringing in my ears:"