low, so that
the bride was scarcely aware of the gale that had been blowing so
fiercely out at sea. Besides, being much taken up with
cousin-bridesmaids and other matters, the thought of the lifeboat never
once entered her pretty head.

At the appointed hour, arrayed in all the splendour of a fisherman's
bride, she was led to the church, but no bridegroom was there!

"He won't be long. He's _never_ late," whispered a bridesmaid to
anxious Nellie.

Minutes flew by, and Nellie became alarmed. The clergyman also looked
perplexed.

"Something must have happened," said the farmer-uncle, apologetically.

Watches were consulted and compared.

At that moment a heavy rapid tread was heard outside. Another moment,
and Bob Massey sprang into the church, panting, flushed, dirty, wet,
wild, and, withal, grandly savage.

"Nellie!" he exclaimed, stopping short, with a joyful gaze of
admiration, for he had never seen her so like an angel before.

"Bob!" she cried in alarm, for she had never before seen him so like a
reprobate.

"Young man," began the clergyman, sternly, but he got no further; for,
without paying any attention to him whatever, Bob strode forward and
seized Nellie's hands.

"I dursen't kiss ye, Nell, for I'm all wet; but I hadn't one moment to
change. Bin out all night i' the lifeboat an' saved over thirty souls.
The Brentley boat's done as much. I'm ashamed, sir," he added, turning
to the clergyman, "for comin' here like this; but I couldn't help it. I
hope there's nothin' in Scriptur' agin' a man bein' spliced in wet
toggery?"

Whether the clergyman consulted his Cruden's Concordance with a view to
clear up that theological question, we have never been able to
ascertain; but it is abundantly clear that he did not allow the
coxswain's condition to interfere with the ceremony, for in the _Greyton
Journal_, of next day, there appeared a paragraph to the following
effect:

"The marriage of Robert Massey, the heroic coxswain of our lifeboat,
(which, with all its peculiar attendant circumstances, and the gallant
rescue that preceded it, will be found in another part of this day's
issue), was followed up in the afternoon by a feast, and what we may
style a jollification, which will live long in the memory of our
fisher-folk.

"Several circumstances combined to render this wedding-feast unique.
To say nothing of the singular beauty of the bride, who is well known
as one of the most t