ss, to the light which had been destroyed so recently,
she held on her course, struck, split in two, and went down with every
soul on board.

The necessity for building another tower was thus made; as it were,
urgently obvious; nevertheless, nearly four years elapsed before any one
was found with sufficient courage and capacity to attempt the dangerous
and difficult enterprise.

During this period, our friend John Potter, being a steady, able man,
found plenty of work at the docks of Plymouth; but he often cast a
wistful glance in the direction of "the Rock" and sighed to think of the
tower that had perished, and the numerous wrecks that had occurred in
consequence; for, not only had some vessels struck on the Rock itself,
but others, keeping too far off its dreaded locality, were wrecked on
the coast of France. John Potter's sigh, it must be confessed, was also
prompted, in part, by the thought that his dreams of a retired and
peaceful life as a light-keeper were now destined never to be realised.

Returning home one evening, somewhat wearied, he flung his huge frame
into a stout arm chair by the fireside, and exclaimed, "Heigho!"

"Deary me, John, what ails you to-night?" asked the faithful Martha, who
was, as of yore, busy with the supper.

"Nothin' partikler, Martha; only I've had a hard day of it, an I'm glad
to sit down. Was Isaac Dorkin here to-day?"

"No, 'e wasn't. I wonder you keep company with that man," replied Mrs
Potter, testily; "he's for ever quarrelling with 'ee, John."

"No doubt he is, Martha; but we always make it up again; an' it don't do
for a man to give up his comrades just because they have sharp words now
and then. Why, old girl, you and I are always havin' a spurt o' that
sort off and on; yet I don't ever talk of leavin' ye on that account."

To this Martha replied, "Fiddlesticks;" and said that she didn't believe
in the friendship of people who were always fighting and making it up
again; that for her part she would rather have no friends at all, she
wouldn't; and that she had a settled conviction, she had, that Isaac
Dorkin would come to a bad end at last.

"I hope not, Martha; but in the meantime he has bin the means of gettin'
me some work to do that is quite to my liking."

"What may that be, John?" asked Mrs Potter in surprise.

"I'll tell you when we're at supper," said John with a smile; for he
knew from experience that his better half was in a fitter state to
swallow u