there, after all, no insensible form swinging about in the sweep of those
waves, with life gradually oozing away? Long, long as it seemed to me, I
watched, and still the boat kept moving from place to place, so far out
that I could see nothing distinctly of the motions of its crew. At length I
saw something. Yes; a long white thing rose from the water slowly, and was
drawn into the boat. It rowed swiftly to the shore. There was but one place
fit to land upon,--a little patch of sand, nearly covered at high-water,
but now lying yellow in the sun, under the window at which I stood, and
immediately under our garden-wall. Thither the boat shot along; and there
my friend of the coastguard, earnest and sad, was waiting to use, though
without hope, every appliance so well known to him from the frequent
occurrence of such necessity in the course of his watchful duties along
miles and miles of stormy coast.

I will not linger over the sad details of vain endeavour. The honoured head
of a family, he had departed and left a good name behind him. But even in
the midst of my poor attentions to the quiet, speechless, pale-faced wife,
who sat at the head of the corpse, I could not help feeling anxious about
the effect on my Connie. It was impossible to keep the matter concealed
from her. The undoubted concern on the faces of the two boys was enough to
reveal that something serious and painful had occurred; while my wife and
Wynnie, and indeed the whole household, were busy in attending to every
remotest suggestion of aid that reached them from the little crowd gathered
about the body. At length it was concluded, on the verdict of the medical
man who had been sent for, that all further effort was useless. The body
was borne away, and I led the poor lady to her lodging, and remained there
with her till I found that, as she lay on the sofa, the sleep that so
often dogs the steps of sorrow had at length thrown its veil over her
consciousness, and put her for the time to rest. There is a gentle
consolation in the firmness of the grasp of the inevitable, known but to