in distress. It was "pitchy dark;" a strong gale was blowing, and a heavy surf beating on the shore, but the life-boat men felt that duty called, and did not hesitate. They went to sea as if it were to their fire-sides they were going; and they were successful in saving a ship's crew. The brief narrative of this adventure tells us that very few on shore believed the life-boat "would ever return," the night was so awful; "it was sufficient to appal any one entering the life-boat."

The payments to the crews of the life-boats are placed in the Annual Report of the Life-boat Institution, opposite the services thus rendered. For instance, the 16 men belonging to the brigs Providence and Mayflower, mentioned above, were saved for the sum of £25. At Portmadoc, in a heavy gale with a terrific surf, 17 men were saved for £14. This is about 17s. a head, and flesh and blood is certainly cheap at that rate. The Carnsore life-boat saved 19 persons, at a cost of £22 14s. Suppose the average expense of saving a man by means of the life-boat is a pound, this is the way to put it before the public-will you give 20s. a year to save a fellow-creature from a horrible death? Perhaps you save more than one by that gift. You may save a family from an irreparable loss, you may restore a darling boy to his widowed mother, a father to his young and helpless children. Here is a strong claim upon the national benevolence, and fortunately it is becoming day by day more openly acknowledged, just as the merits of the National Life-boat Institution become more widely known.

Public and private gratitude calls for the support of this Institution, and some instances have been recorded which show how beautifully gratitude works, and how sweetly its work is repaid. The Carnsore life-boat, mentioned above as saving 19 people from shipwreck, was the "thank-offering" of a lady who was saved from drowning, One sees a striking appropriateness in that thank-offering, as an example of the ruling which brings good out of evil. There is another instance recorded of a similar character. Two ladies, in memory of a departed sister, place a life-boat at Llandudno, in North Wales, and call it the "Sisters' Memorial." The memory of departed worth, or departed affection, could not be preserved in a more fitting manner. The memorial is all goodness and all mercy, and has as little of the taint of the world in it as anything else that could be mentioned. It is to keep these benevolences in active operation-to endow them for ever, as it were—that the Life-boat Institution appeals to the public. It is an appeal that will stand any test-a cause that all can assist in-and a cause that only requires to be known to insure a sufficiency of help to keep up its large life-saving fleet of 115 life-boats, and gradually to increase their number.

SKETCHES OF NAVAL LIFE.*

BY AN OLD SALT.

CHAPTER XIV.

ONE has heard of a wild beast showman putting his head within a lion's jaws, and entreating the bye-standers to call out when he began to wag his tail, but that man's moral and physical perturbation was simply nothing as compared with mine, when, as I stated in last chapter, I found myself in mid air, and our irate commander's face within an inch of mine, as he said, "Bad, you whelp, what do you mean by bad?”

I could only stammer out, "Oh, sir, please don't sir; I beg pardon, sir," on which he relaxed his hold, and I flopped down on my feet with a vague idea that I had been murdered and brought to life again; then, still thinking him the very cruellist of created mortals, I stood doggedly silent, he looking down on me in like manner.

At last he said, "Young gentleman, look at me, if you please." I did so, and he added, "Now, then, have the decency to explain, if you can, why you cast such an imputation on me,-a gentleman, and your commander?"

I thought I would become a martyr in the cause of the poor fishermen, and thereby get the applause of all hands, if he killed me for what I was going to say, so I blubbered out, "If you please, sir, everybody says you're being bad to the poor fishermen we ran down, sir!" Out it came: "You inconceivable little asss—but its too ridiculous, ha, ha, ha! by George! well really, ha, ha, ha! why you,-upon my honour,— come along, youngster, sit down and eat your luncheon, if I haven't shaken your appetite out of you: here, a glass of wine with you; your good health and better manners; and now then, answer my first question directly and to the point, without any of your ifs, or buts, or bads; can you keep a secret?" I said "Yes;" and he then went on and explained to me, that I was to stay on shore and superintend the fitting out of a new fishing smack he was going to buy for the poor fishermen out of his own pocket, and that I was to see she had everything of the best for a craft of her calling, and I was to try and worm out of the old fisherman his wife's name, and if I thought he loved her, the smack was to be called after her; and I was to keep this a profound secret, as I feared death and his displeasure. All this I promised to do solemnly, begging to be allowed the assistance of Bill Williams in looking out and judging * Continued from page 443.

what was best, as he had been a west country fisherman before joining the navy.

The captain shook his head and said, "No, no, youngster, he's a very good man, but this sort of thing is only safe in gentlemanly keeping, so you must trust your own discretion and your coal-trade experience to help you out."

I said, in reply, "Williams is a gentleman in his heart, sir, and would die before he opened his lips against your orders!" "Very well," he said, "on your head be it, then; take him with you, buy the best smack you can, fit her out complete for trawling, and I'll give you a cheque for her price when completed-only remember, get Williams on shore before you broach this subject to him, and don't let him set foot on board again till all is ready for my completion of the affair."

Accordingly, the next morning I donned a suit of plain clothes, told Williams he was to go on shore with me, and then went to the captain for final orders. I told him I had learned that the old man loved his wife dearly, and that her name was Betty, and that he mourned more about her than himself. I then said I hoped he would forgive me for what I had said about him in the first instance, while he laughed and said, "Oh yes, youngster, it was too good a joke not to be forgiven, though not so easily forgotten; so, now, away with you, and see that yourself and companion act with discretion in this matter, as you value my friendship, and let me know when everything is complete!"

We accordingly started, and got on shore just in time to catch Mrs. Williams stepping into a.shore-boat to go alongside the frigate to her husband, she having (as Billy called it) tided it alongshore in carriers' carts and wagons from Plymouth to Portsmouth, to join him once more. It was a happy meeting that of Billy and his spouse. She looked so glad to see him, and she was so properly dressed, all her old flaunty clothes being changed for plain, decent apparel; and, as to him, I verily believe he would have rejected the advances of Venus herself for the sake of his new made rib. So we stepped into her boat, and went over to Gosport, and found three or four smacks wanting customers, in various stages towards completion.

My first enterprise, however, was being closeted with Billy and his wife, (whom I thought it better to tell all at once than let him do it afterwards), when I fully explained our commander's views and wishes, and swore them to death-like silence on the subject over three glasses of rum shrub. We first went and looked, came back and talked, then Billy went alone, and bargained for a bran new smack, sails, boat, trawls, nets, lines, &c., complete, for (I think) £150, provided Billy

could produce the tin, of which the builder seemed to entertain strong and rather reasonable doubts. This was a "poser," so I went to the George and saw our governor, and he told me to tell Williams to say to the builder that he would find the money lodged at the bank in his name, and for his sole use, if he, the builder, chose to inquire. Money matters being thus put right, the builder set to work with a will, and in eight days our craft was full rigged and equipped with every necessary, amply found for her particular vocation; the word "Betty" painted on her stern; and, redolent of paint and tar, she was launched into (what people will insist on misnaming) her native element. Our governor came to the launch and made Mrs. Williams christen her, on which occasion she looked so well and blushed so becomingly, that he vowed Williams was a lucky dog to possess so handsome a craft.

He then ordered Williams to get three men alongshore to man her, and to have her sailing near the frigate at noon next day, but to keep far enough off not to be recognized by the naked eye. I was then ordered to go off with him in the gig, and to tell no one a single word about the matter without his permission; so, off I accordingly went, reported myself to the first lieutenant, and slipped into my middy's uniform as fast as possible. Now the game began, first in the midshipmen's berth, then in the lieutenants'; and then, when the captain went on shore, the first lieutenant sent for me into his cabin, and asked where I had been for the last ten days?

"On shore, sir."

"Thank you most kindly youngster; but what have all the time, eh?"

"Nothing particular, sir."

"That is to say, you've not robbed the mail or plundered a henroost; but what have you been doing, as I presume you've been doing something or other besides pure eating, drinking, and sleeping?"

"I was walking about a good deal, sir, seeing my friends."

"Oh, aye, yes, certainly, your mother, I presume, not having quite weaned you came down to finish her nursing, eh, or your private tutor has just done cramming Euclid down your throat: pooh, pooh, youngster, why can't you speak out; I give you my honour I'll keep your secret if you have one, so tell me at once, for know I will, so there's an end of it ?"

"If I tell you, sir, I shall forfeit my honour, and I won't do it, if you kill me for it!"

"Oh! your honour; I beg pardon, I forgot the commodity was so universal, though differing doubtless like the stars in brightness; but

you're right in principle I'm free to confess, only-come, hang it, tell me, and I won't say one word; come do, there's a good lad, come now?"

"No I won't" said I, in a rage, "and you're no, no, no," and here I stuck in the mud from sheer fear of his knocking me down if I said what I had meant to say, namely-"gentleman for asking me.

So he said in his mock polite way, "Oh, don't mention it I beseech you; I fully comprehend the pause; leave the cabin, sir!" and so I sneaked out accordingly.

Well, about eleven a.m., the next day, after seeing the smack sail out of the harbour for Spithead, and looking real well too, I went and told the captain, and away we went off in the gig to the frigate, and down went the captain and first luff into the cabin; but when noon was reported they came on deck again, and the captain said to me, "Youngster, find those fishermen and bring them here."

Off I went and told the father and two sons that the captain wanted them. Fears and hopes were strongly blended in their faces and manner as they walked aft to the quarter-deck, where the captain and first lieutenant were standing in all the stern bearing of despotic power, the one six feet two, and the other five feet seven, which caused Jack to have long before christened them, "The Church Steeple and the Chancel;" and when the master-at-arms formed the trio, he was called the "Nave" by acclamation.

Our chief thus began: "Mr. H-, I should be glad to know how these men have behaved since their most unceremonious entrance into this ship?"

"I am happy to say, very well sir, saving a futile attempt at desertion, frustrated by the master-at-arms."

"Desertion, eh! Do you happen to know the punishmeut for it my men; have you ever heard of a running noose and a foreyard arm, eh?" Here the father stepped one stride in advance of his sons, and looking our governor firm in the eye, said, "If so be, zur, as anybody is to be hanged for it, it'z me and not my lads, for I telled 'um to try and goo t'the old 'oman as is a breaking of her heart, and if you'se only let them tuo goo away wom, I'm ready and willing to die for her and them this minit!"

wom

Well, our skipper went very red in the face, put out his arm as if to shake hands with the old fellow, drew it suddenly back and shut himself up again like an oyster, saying, "Not so fast my good man, not so fast, do not anticipate causes and effects; and now, sir, you tell me you were the master of a Torbay fishing-smack; but how am I to know this, sir, or that you were not a smuggler running hollands across