dy for landing next day. Consent had been the
more readily given that the white-haired grandfather of little Lizzie
volunteered to take care of her and keep her out of mischief.

The other passengers were as yet only subdued, not alarmed. There were
men and women and little ones from the Australian cities, rough men from
the sheep farms, and bronzed men from the gold mines. All were busy
making preparations to land on the morrow. With the exception of those
preparations things on board went on much as they had been going on in
"dirty weather" all the voyage through.

Suddenly there was a crash! Most of the male passengers, knowing well
what it meant, sprang to the companion-ladder--those of them at least
who had not been thrown down or paralysed--and rushed on deck. Shrieks
and yells burst forth as if in emulation of the howling winds. Crash
followed crash, as each billow lifted the doomed vessel, and let her
fall on the sands with a shock that no structure made by man could long
withstand. Next moment a terrific rending overhead told that one, or
both, of the masts had gone by the board. At the same time the sea
found entrance and poured down hatchways and through opening seams in
cataracts. The inclined position of the deck showed that she was
aground.

The very thought of being _aground_ comforted some, for, to their minds,
it implied nearness to land, and _land_ was, in their idea, safety.
These simple ones were doomed to terrible enlightenment. Little Lizzie,
pale and silent from terror, clung to her grandfather's neck; the young
widow to his disengaged arm. With the other arm the old man held on to
a brass rod, and prevented all three from being swept to leeward, where
several of the women and children were already struggling to escape from
a mass of water and wrecked furniture.

"Come on deck--all hands!" shouted a hoarse voice, as one of the
officers leaped into the cabin, followed by several men, who assisted
the people to rise.

It is usual to keep passengers below as much as possible in such
circumstances, but the position of the schooner, with her bow high on a
bank, and her stern deep in the water, rendered a different course
needful on this occasion.

With difficulty the passengers were got up to the bow, where they
clustered and clung about the windlass and other points of vantage.
Then it was that the true nature of their calamity was revealed, for no
land was visible, nothing was to b