Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-10-14
A GIRLS paRIsa.

Until she was 10 years old, Dorothy
lived very uneventful life, for one week
was much the same as another in the placid
existence of the village. On Sunday morn.
ings, when the church.bell began to ring,
you would meet her walking ever the moor
with springy step. Her shawl was gray,
and her dress was of the most pronounced
color that could be bought in the market
town. Her brown hair was gathered in a
net. and her calm eyes looked from under
an old-fsshioned bonnet of straw. Her
feet were always bare, but she carried her
shoes and stockings slung over her
shoulder. When she got near the church
she sat down in the shade of hedge and
put them on; then she walked the rest of
the distance with cramped and civilized
gate. Every bost in the village went away
north one evening, and not man remained
in the row excepting three very old fellows,
who were long past work of any kind.
When the fisherman grows helpless with
age he is kept by his own people, and his
days are passed in quietly smoking on a
kitchen settle or in looking dimly out over
the sea from the bench at the door. A
southerly gale, with a southerly sea, came
away in the night, and the boats could not
beat down from the northward. By day.
light they were all safe in a harbor about
eighteen miles north of the village. The
sea grew worse and worse, and the usual
clouds of foam flew against the houses or
skinned away into the fields beyond
When the wind reached its hight the
sounds it made in the hollows were like
distant firing of email arms, and the waves
IN the hollow rocks seemed to shake the
ground over the cliffs. A little schooner
came round the point, running before the
sea. She might have got clear away, be-
cause it was easy enough for her, had she
clawed short way out, risking the beam
sea, to have made the harbor where the
fishers were. But the skipper kept her
close in, and presently she struck on long
tongue of rocks that trended far out east.
ward. The tops OF her masts seemed nearly
to meet, so it appeared as if she had broken
her back. The seas few sheer over her,
and the men had to climb into the rigging.
All the women were watching and waiting
to see her to go to pieces. There was no
chance of getting boat out, SO the helpless
villagers waited to see the men drown
and the women cried in their shrill. piteous
manner. Dorothy said Will she
break up in an hour ? If l thowt she
could hing there | would be away for
the lifeboat. But the old men said
"You can never cross the burn" Four
miles south, behind the point, there was a
village where lifeboat was kept but just
half way stream ran into the sea, and
across this stream there was only plank
bridge. Half mile below the bridge the
water spread far over the broad sand and
-
spoke no more, except to say, :" I'll away"
She ran across the moor for a mile, and
then scrambled down the sand so that the
tearing wind might not impede her. 1t
was dangerous work for the next mile.
Every yard of the way she had to splash
through the foam, because the great waves
were rolling up very yearly to the foot of
the cliffs. An extra strong sea might have
caught her off her feet, but she did not
think Of that she only thought OF saving
her breath by escaping the direct onslaught
Of the wind. When she came to the
mouth Of the burn her heart failed her for
a little. There was tbree-quarters of a
mile of water covered with creamy foam,
and she did not know but what she might
be taken out Of her depth. Yet she de-
termined to risk, and plunged in at a
run. The sand was hard under foot, but,
as she said, when the piled foam came
softly up to her waist, she "felt gey
funny" Hallway across she stumbled into
hole caused by swirling eddy, and she
thought all was over; but her nerve never
failed her, and she struggled till she got a
footing again. When she reached the hard
ground she was wet to the neck, and her
hair was sodden with her one plunge
" overhead" Her clothes troubled her
with their weight in crossing the moor so
she put off all she did not need and pressed
forward again. Presently she reached the
house where the coxswain OF the lifeboat
lived. She gasped out, "The schooner
On the Letch Norrad." The coxswain,
who had seen the schooner go past, knew
what was the matter. He said, "Here,
wife, look after the lass" and ran out.
The {" lass needed looking after, for she
had tainted. But her work was well done !;
the lifeboat went round the point, ran
north and took six men ashore from the
schooner. The Captain had been washed
overheard, but the Others were saved by
Dorothy's daring and endurance. The girl
is as simple as ever, and she knows nothing
whatever about Grace Darling. If she
were offered any reward she would probably
wonder why she should receive one St.
James Gazette.