o tell
mother,"--and with an agile step she bounded down the steep eminence,
and in a few moments reached the door of the dwelling, while the
fisherman hastened to the beach, to be first ready to greet the crew of
the schooner with a hearty welcome home.

CHAPTER IX.

"Ben," said the Captain of a smart-looking schooner, that under a heavy
weight of canvas was manfully breasting the breeze, almost conscious,
one might fancy, that it was steering for home.

"Ben," he inquired, addressing the mate, who had just come on deck,
"what is that strange looking thing yonder?" indicating by his finger
the direction of the object. The mate, a weather-beaten and experienced
looking son of the ocean, glanced for a moment in the direction
specified, without speaking.

"It looks to me," he said at length, "like a human being clinging to
some box or chair, but it is floating fast this way, and we shall soon
be able to tell."

Sure enough, in a moment or two, they were enabled to gain a full, clear
view of it, and saw it to be a woman holding fast to a ring of some
kind,--a life-preserver they judged it to be,--which kept her head above
the waters.

"Let us bear down quick," said the Master, in an excited tone, for he
was young and kind-hearted, and the sight of anything in distress, how
much more a woman, was sufficient to arouse his warmest sympathies; and
ere ten minutes had elapsed, the life-preserver, with its clinging
burden, was safely landed on deck.

Agnes, for she it was, whom this worthy man had so promptly and
providentially rescued, was partially insensible; but some restoratives,
which fortunately they happened to have on hand, being applied, she soon
recovered, at least sufficiently to explain from whence she came, and
through what means she had been placed in such a perilous situation.

It appeared, from her statement, that after having embarked on board the
boat during that tempestuous night, which witnessed the conflagration of
their noble steamer, whose fate was recorded in a previous chapter, the
sailors, who had, unknown to the captain, smuggled a large cask of
spirits on board, began freely to imbibe them, to keep out, as they
said, the cold. It was in vain that the ladies remonstrated with them,
and pointed out the dangers which would ensue, should they become
helpless through its means. Unfortunately they had lost sight, in
consequence of the darkness and tempest, of the other boat, containing
t