hed the wreck, only to find the boy had gone
under. The soldiers were clinging to the bobbing keel of the boat, and
Ida grasped them with a firm, practised hand, while at the same time
managing to keep her own boat near enough so that when a wave washed
them together she was able to help the exhausted soldiers to climb
into it. They were unable to speak, and one of them was so exhausted
that she feared she could not get him to land in time to resuscitate
him.

With wind-blown hair, and eyes dark with determination, she rowed as
she had never rowed before, and at last her boat touched the rocky
home ledge. Out she jumped, and in less time than it takes to tell it,
she had the men before her fire, wrapped in blankets. One of them was
unconscious for such a long time that his rescuer was wondering what
was best to do--to take the risk of leaving him and row to the
mainland for a doctor, or to take the risk of doing for him with her
own inexperienced hands. Just then his blue eyes opened, and after a
drink of stimulant he slowly revived, and at last was able to talk
coherently. The storm was still raging and the men remained on the
lighthouse ledge with the girl rescuer, for whom they showed open
admiration; then, when the clouds lifted and the moon shone wanly
through the rift, they took their own boat and rowed off to the fort.
But they were staunch friends of Ida Lewis from that day, and she
enjoyed many a chat with them, and had more than one pleasant
afternoon on the mainland with them when they were off duty.

At another time she was out in her boat in a bad storm, when through
the dense darkness she heard cries of, "Help! help!" and, rowing in
the direction from which the cries came, she found three men in the
water clinging to the keel of an overturned boat. With her usual
promptness in an emergency, she dragged them all into her boat and
took them to shore. Another day, from the lighthouse tower, she saw
the slender figure of a man clinging to a spindle which was a mile and
a half from the lighthouse. In a very short time he would be too
exhausted to hold on any longer. She must hurry, hurry! With flying
feet she made her boat ready; with firm strokes she rowed out to the
spindle, rescued the man and bore him safely to shore.

At this time Ida Lewis was so well known as being always on hand in
any emergency that it was taken as a matter of course to have her
appear out of the sky, as one's preserver, and the man