Year: 1863

winds and waves, which threatened every mo


neut to overwhelnn it. 4 woman, two chill
dred and sailor were alone on the waters ii
this frail vessel. The woman, wrapped in a
large cloak, under the shelter Of which she
Rugged her children to her heart, alternately
wept and prayed. The sailor, having for q
long time struggled against the tempest, and
endeavored in vain 10 urge forward the shallop
in his charge, he closed his arms on his breast
and waited in sullen silence the death which
seemed inevitable. Through the thick mist his
practised eye at lenght saw hope. Land
Land !" be shouted, and retaking the oars piled
them with new vigor.


Vain! His exhausted strength could sur
mount no rebuff, even with apparent safety in
bis reach. His struggle TO gain the shore
seemed but TO lengthen the distance between
the boat and the strand. At length be again
abandoned his hopeless labor The quick eye
of the mother detected his purpose as be re-
lieved his person of his heavier garments.


"You will not abandon my children to per-
ish ~ she cried in agony.


The sailor looked wistfully at the unhappy
sufferers He measured the distance to the
shore with his eve, and looked over the boats
side, 10 the waters which, here partially shell
tered, seemed to boil, and yeast as if in caul-
dron, the receding tide combating the furious
gale. To save one of these helpless ones was
impossible. He ventured on no word of advice
or consolation, lest his mercy should master his
judgement, but while the mother yet hoped
while she leaned forward with lips apart, and
eyes pressing from their sockets to catch q
word, a sigh, breath in answer, be cut all
short by diving suddenly into the sea.


The boat reeed and shivered under the mo-
mentum given to it BY the sailors plunge, but
He who holds the waters in the hollow Of His
hand watched over the forsaken. The mother
clasped the little ones yet closer to her breast,
and raised her eyes to heaven in an agony of
prayer, too earnest TO wait for words. Her
face spoke an appeal from which Abaddon's
self could not have turned compassionless. The
wave that she feared was just about to whelm
her, was broken in its crest By the strange
weight it bore-and as the waters neared her
"a sullen-an unearthly sound broke on her
quick ear, and the spray which flew across her
face came bloodstained. The dead body of the
sailor who had deserted her, bumped an instant
against the boats side, and then drifted away
from the sight Of mortal man forever. He had
struck upon the sharp point of rocks beneath
the surface and escaped the lingering death to
which he thought he had left his companions
by sudden and awful plunge into the presence
of his maker.


In another instant the deserted woman felt
q strange sound beneath her feet. The boat
was grating on the sand. Another bound be
fore the wave and it was fast. She sounded
the water with her arm. and to her inexpressi-
ble Joy found solid earth. In an instant she
stepped from the sbalIop, caught her infants
in her arms, and aimed for the beach, which
seemed at little distance The water deep
ened as she proceeded-to her waist-to her
throat-she staggered-and the stding bub-
bling cry of her children nerved her with new
strength An almost superhuman spring, and
she was safe again-and anon she recoiled, as
the earth seemed to sink under her feet, and
another footstep would have plunged her into
an abyss in the very sight of safety. The
of tLo of
lightning of hope-each seized her by turns,
till at length in deirium of JOY she left the
sea behind her, having escaped its last engulph-
ing wave-and falling on her face in the damp
sand, she poured out her soul in gratitude to
the God who had delivered her and her little
ones.


She rose, shuddering with cold, now that the
struggling was over. Her children quivering
with terror, and sobbing in discomfort, clung
to her knees. The wind, as if Heaven had held
it back until her escape, increased in fury
Rain fell in torrents, and the waves drowned
the shore far above the point at which she had
first felt safety. Her eye wandered in vain for
help. the cold sky, the lashing wave, the bleak
rock, the barren sand. Knocked the hope of the
mother for comfort or safety. A reaction of
feeling had taken place-her heart was sinking
within her.


\ voice Again and nearer. A man upon
the rocks earnestly beckoning, as if some new
and imminent danger beset the fugitive from
death. She saw no more, but sank insensibe
upon the sand and her children raised pierc-
ing wall beside her Unerring instinct :
They did not shrek thus when she sank down
to pray.


Another moment. and the man who shouted
the warning is beside the shipwrecked mother.
His hardy wife attends him. She has caught
the children. each By a shoulder, with more
strength than gentleness, though with gentle
purpose, and is scrambling up the rocks. He
bears the still Dsensible form of the mother