Grace Darling, the eldest of the seven children, has just reached
her twenty-second year, and all the family are rejoicing at the
festival, for every anniversary is religiously kept by the little
company that animates the solitude of Longstone.

Every one is gone out to seek something by which he may take his
part in the festivity, and prepare a surprise for the well-beloved
sister. The mother remains at home kneading a nice cake to gratify
the appetite of the little marauders.

"Mother, Mother!" cried John, who returned the first; "see what a
superb lobster the rising sea has brought up and left in the crevice
of a rock, which I call my fish-trap. Might not one say that the sea
knew that it was Grace's feast day?"

"I have only some shrimps," said William; "but they are very fine
ones, I hope. I took them, with a net at the end of the little
creek."

"Imprudent boy!" said their mother; "your father has told you a
hundred times not to venture to fish on that side of the island; the
rock is too steep, and the water is more than a hundred fathoms
deep."

"Yes, but, in a turning, there is a little platform which I have
shown to my father, and he has consented to my going there at low
water. Then I know the rock, and the sea knows me; neither of them
wish to hurt me. You have more reason for scolding Jenny; she is not
afraid of any thing; she climbs like a cat all along the crevices to