s a newspaper paragraph," continued the old gentleman, unfolding
a paper and preparing to read, "which shows the brief way in which the
public prints at times notice events of the most stirring and heroic
nature:--`On the morning of the 3rd December last, after a stormy and
rainy night, the wind shifted to the North West and blew a hurricane.
Many vessels got on shore near Holyhead, from various causes. The
lifeboat of the National Lifeboat Institution was launched and proceeded
to their assistance. She got ahead of one, a schooner, and anchored,
but the intense violence of the wind blew her to leeward, anchor and
all, and she was unable to communicate, and had great difficulty in
returning ashore. She again put off to the schooner _Elizabeth_ of
Whitehaven, which had a signal of distress flying, having parted one
chain, and brought her crew of four men on shore. The hurricane
continued unabated well into the night. The weather having moderated,
the lifeboat was despatched at 2 a.m., and brought on shore twenty-three
men from the _Confiance_ of Liverpool; then again put off and brought
ashore nineteen men from the barque _Elizabeth Morrow_ of Glasgow; next
proceeded to the schooner _L'Esperance_ of Nantes, and saved two men,
making altogether a total of forty-eight lives saved by the lifeboat in
this hurricane only.'

"Dear madam," observed Mr Summers, looking at Mrs Foster over his
spectacles, "surely it is unnecessary for me to point out that this
brief narrative does not give us the most distant conception of the
terrors, the endurance, the heroism, incident to that night! Permit me
to read you another paragraph. It is given more in detail and does
better justice to the scene."

The old gentleman selected another paper, opened it, and read as
follows:--

"`The sum of 9 pounds has recently been given by the National Lifeboat
Institution to a boat's crew, in appreciation of their gallant conduct
in putting off in a salmon-coble, during a heavy gale of wind, and
rescuing, at great risk of life, the crew of four men of the schooner
_Thankful_ of Sunderland, which was totally wrecked off Burghead, n.b.,
on the 19th July. Every moment the position of the ship was becoming
more dangerous as the advancing tide drove her in among the small rocks
at the back of the sea-wall, and no boat could live in the terrible
surge that was fast breaking up the vessel. The crew, four in number,
along with the pilot, took to the