ss the bay. The
rarest shells were only to be found at the Point, and both children were
eager collectors.

'It seems always smooth water in this bay,' said Maurice--'so different
from where we went last year in Cornwall. There the great, big waves
seemed always dashing against the shore.'

'You wait a bit, Master Maurice!' said old John. 'You have only been
here a week or two, and it has been fine weather all the time; but when
a storm gets up, I will answer for it you would not know the place.
There are no fiercer waves round England than those that beat against
the cliffs yonder at times'--and the old man waved his hand at the
cliffs just behind him.

'I should like to see a storm here,' said Maurice, as he clasped his
hands round his knees and stared thoughtfully before him.

'Don't say that, sir,' answered John. 'It is a terrible thing, is a
wreck on this coast; some poor vessel is sure to be dashed against the
cruel cliffs in a storm, and then there are orphans and widows to mourn
her loss.'

'Did you ever see a shipwreck?' asked Eileen.

'Many a one, Missy,' was the old man's quiet answer.

'But I mean, were you ever in a shipwreck?' pursued Eileen.

'I was, once,' said John, slowly.

'Oh, tell us about it, please!' begged Maurice.

'It's a long time ago now,' said the old boatman. 'I was a lad of twelve
or thereabouts, on my first voyage. The vessel was the _Hope_, of
Liverpool, and we had a cargo of Manchester goods. It was roughish
weather when we started, and it kept on getting worse and worse, and
by-and-bye such a storm arose as it seemed impossible for any ship to
weather. Anyway, it was too much for the poor old _Hope_--she was driven
on to the rocks off the Welsh coast and broke up like matches.'

'But the people on board! what became of them?' asked Eileen in an
awe-struck tone.

'Drowned!' said old John, shortly.

'But,' said Eileen, suddenly, 'you were on that ship--you said so--and
you are not drowned!'

'No, Missy, I am not,' said the old man suddenly. 'I had a most wonderful
escape. It seems hard to believe that a little ignorant boy as I was
should have been the only one saved out of that fine crew; but so it was.'

'Tell us about it,' said Maurice, fixing his eyes on the old man's
weather-beaten face.

'When the storm was at its worst, and it was plain that the ship must
founder, a kind-hearted sailor took me with him to the top of the
main-mast. We had hardly got there befor