succeeding the storm.

Walking with Clara upon the beach, they saw borne toward them, on the
crest of a mighty wave, a square beam of wood, bent at an obtuse angle,
which Clara at once pronounced to be the knee from some large boat, and,
rushing dauntlessly into the water, the energetic little maid battled
with the wave for its unwieldy toy, and finally dragged it triumphantly
out upon the beach, and beyond the reach of the wave, only wishing that
she had "a piece of chalk to make father's mark upon it." Failing the
chalk, she rushed off home for "father and one of the boys," who soon
bestowed the prize in a place of safety.

Mysie at first wondered considerably that persons should take so much
trouble for a piece of wood, but ceased to do so when she remembered
that on the whole island could not probably be found a tree of a foot in
diameter, and that everything like board or joist at the light-house
must be brought by sea to Holmes's Hole, Edgartown, or Menemshee, and
thence carted over _that_ road to Gay Head, becoming, by the time it
reached "the Light," not a common necessary, but an expensive luxury.
She was not, therefore, surprised at being accompanied in her next walk
along the beach by quite a little party of wreckers, who, joyfully
seizing every chip which the waves tossed within their reach,
accumulated at last a very respectable pile of drift-wood.

"It would be a good thing for you, if the schooner "Mary Ann" should go
to pieces off here," remarked Mysie to Clara, who had become her
constant attendant.

"Why?" inquired she, expectantly.