thar at all. By the time they'd made it, we'd managed to get
through that door an' the crew o' the tug was ready to be taken in the
boat. It was jest six hours from the time we landed on the beach at
Chocolay before we got the first man ashore."

"And the crew of the schooner?" queried the boy.

"We got them off without no trouble. They was sailors! We jest hove a
line aboard 'n' got 'em into the boat. They hadn't suffered much. The
schooner was higher on the shoal 'n the tug, bein' lighter, 'n' the
men'd been able to stay below. They'd kep' a couple o' lookouts on the
job, relievin' 'em every hour shipshape and Bristol fashion."

"How many men did you rescue?" the boy asked.

"Nine men from the steamer 'n' six from the schooner. It was nigh eight
in the mornin' before they was all ashore, drinkin' coffee an' gittin'
eats. The women o' the commoonity was still on the job. I'm doubtin' if
we could ha' ever made it without somethin' like that. We wa'n't any too
soon, neither."

"Why not?"

"In less 'n an hour after we got 'em ashore the tug capsized 'n' went
to pieces. The old schooner stood it out better, but she was pretty much
a wreck, too, when the weather cleared. We'd our work to do, 'n' we done
it. Jest the same, I've allers had a feelin' as if there was as much to
be said for the fishermen, 'n' the train-hands, 'n' the cap'n o' the
tug, 'n' all the rest that j'ined in.

"It's the biggest rescue on the lakes, but there's nothin' more
wonderful in it to me than the way it shows how everybody gets in 'n'
gives a hand when help is needed. Don't ye ever forget, in times o'
need, that ye've only got ter call, 'n' some one's goin' to hear. An'
ye're like enough ter need help in the life-savin' business. I ain't
saying as storms is as bad now as they was, but there's enough of 'em
still ter keep any crew right on the jump."

"I'll remember, Mr. Icchia," the boy replied, "and I'll be mighty proud
if I can ever do half as well. I'm proud enough, now, just to be given
the chance."

The old man knocked the ashes from his pipe on his horny and
weather-beaten hand and answered,

"As long as there's life-savin' to be done, there's goin' ter be
life-savers to do it. I don' hold with none o' this nonsense ye hear
sometimes about the world gittin' worse. If ever I did get that idee,
I'd only have to go 'n' look at a surf-boat, 'n' I'd know different.
It's a good world, boy, 'n' the goodness don't lay in tryin' to be a