hich we put on while our wet clothes were drying. Uncle Tom had a
lady's cloak over his shoulders. Dick was dressed in an old uniform
coat, and papa got into a pea-jacket.

The shipwrecked crew were looked after by the Coastguard men, and the
lieutenant and his wife attended to the mate and the boy; while the
master of the vessel had a room to himself, being completely knocked up,
and as soon as he had had some supper went to bed, and happily was soon
fast asleep.

Papa and the lieutenant found that they had many mutual acquaintances,
and they sat spinning yarns before the fire--for, although summer, a
fire was very pleasant--until late in the night. The lieutenant
described to us the gallant way in which the lifeboats of two
neighbouring stations had gone out on several occasions to rescue the
crews of vessels either on the rocks or sandbanks at the mouth of the
Moray Firth.

One hears but little of the wreck of coasters; but were it not for the
assistance of lifeboats, in most instances the crews, consisting of
three to six men, would be lost; as the vessels, being often old and
rotten, quickly break up, and being low, the seas wash completely over
them. Not long ago a boat was discovered by one of the Coastguard men
on the beach; and on hurrying towards her, he found a poor fellow lying
on the sand almost exhausted. On carrying him to a neighbouring
fisherman's cottage, he recovered; and he then stated that he belonged
to a large barque which had gone on the sands; that he and twelve other
men had taken to their boat, but that she had capsized, and that all
hands, with the exception of himself, had been drowned; that he had swum
on shore, though he could scarcely tell how he had managed to reach it.
He said that there were four men still on board. On this the Coastguard
men hastened to the nearest lifeboat station, when the boat was
immediately manned and pushed off for the wreck, the position of which
the seaman had described, though as it was night she could not be seen.
Away the gallant crew pulled through tremendous seas, which were rolling
in on the coast. Having gained an offing, they made sail, and steered
for the wreck, which at length was discovered with two of her masts
gone, while the crew were clinging to the rigging of the remaining mast,
which threatened every instant to follow the others. The lifeboat,
showing a light, indicated to the poor fellows on the wreck that help
was near. After con