to a quick little laugh,
dropped her eyes on the net, and again became intent on repairs.

"To think," continued Bob, taking two or three draws at his short pipe--
for our hero was not perfect, being, like so many of his class,
afflicted with the delusion of tobacco!--"to think that there'll be no
Nellie Carr to-morrow afternoon, only a Mrs Massey! The tide o' my
life is risin' fast, Nellie--almost at flood now. It seems too good to
be true--"

"Right you are, boy," interrupted a gruff but hearty voice, as a burly
fisherman "rolled" round the stern of the boat, in front of which the
lovers were seated on the sand. "W'en my Moggie an' me was a-coortin'
we thought, an' said, it was too good to be true, an' so it was;
leastwise it was too true to be good, for Moggie took me for better an'
wuss, though it stood to reason I couldn't be both, d'ee see? an' I soon
found her wuss than better, which--"

"Come, come, Joe Slag," cried Bob, "let's have none o' your ill-omened
growls to-night. What brings you here?"

"I've comed for the key o' the lifeboat," returned Slag, with a knowing
glance at Nellie. "If the glass ain't tellin' lies we may have use for
her before long."

Massey pulled the key from his pocket, and gave it to Slag, who was his
bowman, and who, with the exception of himself, was the best man of the
lifeboat crew.

"I'll have to follow him," said Bob, rising soon after his mate had
left, "so good-bye, Nellie, till to-morrow."

He did not stoop to kiss her, for the wide sands lay before them with
fisher-boys playing thereon--apparently in their fathers' boots and
sou'-westers--and knots of observant comrades scattered about.

"See that you're not late at church to-morrow, Bob," said the girl, with
a smile and a warning look.

"Trust me," returned Bob.

As he walked towards the lifeboat-house--a conspicuous little building
near the pier--he tried to blow off some of the joy in his capacious
breast, by whistling.

"Why, Slag," he exclaimed on entering the shed, "I do believe you've
been an' put on the blue ribbon!"

"That's just what I've done, Bob," returned the other. "I thought you'd
'ave noticed it at the boat; but I forgot you could see nothin' but the
blue of Nellie's eyes."

"Of course not. Who'd expect me to see anything else when I'm beside
_her_?" retorted Bob. "But what has made you change your mind? I'm
sure the last time I tried to get you to hoist the blue-peter ye were
obstina