te enough--dead against it."

"True, Bob; but since that time I've seed a dear woman that I was fond
of _die_ from drink, an' I've seed Tom Riley, one of our best men, get
on the road to ruin through the same; so I've hoisted the blue flag, as
ye see."

"That's a good job, Slag, but don't you forget, my lad, that the blue
ribbon won't save you. There's but _one_ Saviour of men. Nevertheless,
it's well to fight our battles under a flag, an' the blue is a good
one--as things go. Show your colours and never say die; that's my
motto. As you said, Slag, the glass _is_ uncommon low to-day. I
shouldn't wonder if there was dirty weather brewin' up somewhere."

The coxswain was right, and the barometer on that occasion was a true
prophet. The weather which "brewed up" that evening was more than
"dirty," it was tempestuous; and before midnight a tremendous hurricane
was devastating the western shores of the kingdom. Many a good ship
fought a hard battle that night with tide and tempest, and many a bad
one went down. The gale was short-lived but fierce, and it strewed our
western shores with wreckage and corpses, while it called forth the
energies and heroism of our lifeboat and coastguard men from north to
south.

Driving before the gale that night under close-reefed topsails, a small
but well-found schooner came careering over the foaming billows from the
regions of the far south, freighted with merchandise and gold and happy
human beings. Happy! Ay, they were happy, both passengers and crew,
for they were used by that time to facing and out-riding gales; and was
not the desired haven almost in sight--home close at hand?

The captain, however, did not share in the general satisfaction. Out in
"blue water" he feared no gale, but no one knew better than himself that
the enemy was about to assail him at his weakest moment--when close to
land. No one, however, could guess his thoughts as he stood there upon
the quarter-deck, clad in oil-skins, drenched with spray, glancing now
at the compass, now at the sails, or at the scarce visible horizon.

As darkness deepened and tempest increased, the passengers below became
less cheerful, with the exception of one curly-haired little girl, whose
exuberant spirit nothing could quell. Her young widowed mother had
given in to the little one's importunities, and allowed her to sit up
late on this the last night at sea, to lend a helping hand while she
packed up so as to be rea