Elsie at the World's Fair by Martha Finley
page 56 of 207 (27%)
page 56 of 207 (27%)
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Elsie.
"She was the daughter of William Darling, the lighthouse keeper on Longstone, one of the Fame Islands." "Where are they, papa?" "In the North Sea, on the coast of Northumberland, the most northern county of England. They form, a group of seventeen islets and rocks, some of them so small and low-lying as to be covered with water and not visible except when the tide is low; and the passage between them is very dangerous in rough weather. "Two of the islands have each a lighthouse, and it was in one of those that Grace Darling and her father lived. "In 1838 a vessel called the _Forfarshire_ was wrecked among those islands. William Darling, from his lighthouse, saw it lying broken on the rocks, and sixty-three persons on it in danger of drowning. His daughter Grace, a girl of twenty-two, begged him to go and try to rescue them. It was a very dangerous thing to attempt, but he did it, she going with him. "Both father and daughter were very strong and skilful, and by exerting themselves to the utmost they succeeded in saving nine of the poor wrecked creatures who were crouching there on the rocks in momentary expectation of being washed off by the raging waves and drowned. They bore them safely to Longstone." "And that made Grace Darling famous," remarked Lulu. |
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