TENTH DAY

Early the next forenoon the Doctor called to take them all to the Life-saving Station. Father and Mother could not go, as they were about to start on a visit to Yarmouth farther up the coast.

Shortly after they had started, and when nearly abreast of the Twin Lights, Ben wanted to take a picture, with Uncle Jack and the Doctor in it.

So the horse was stopped, and the two men got out, and sat on the edge of the bluff, where they might see the breakers. Ben snapped his camera, while the men's backs were turned to him.

"I shall have to label this picture to tell you apart," said Ben, as the two clambered up again into the carry-all.

"Hardly any need for that," said the Doctor, as he took up the reins. "The bald spot on the back of the head will show which is I," and he laughed merrily at his own joke.

"Are there many life-saving stations about here, Doctor?" asked Belle, as they jogged along.

"As this is a dangerous coast, there are a great many. In fact, they are as plentiful as lighthouses, not only here, but wherever they are needed. The government looks well after its shore line. But the men who work for the Governthey have a hard life."

ment

"They are not any too well paid, I understand,"

said Uncle Jack.

"No, they are not.

Their work is hard and dan

gerous. It's a pity that the Government cannot, or does not, give these men a better wage. They surely are deserving of it," said the Doctor. "But let me tell you one of Joe Lincoln's stories as we go along. Then you will know more about the way a life-saving station is run," he continued.

JOE LINCOLN'S STORY*

The ocean was on the left, and from the hill .. they saw twenty miles of horizon line with craft of all descriptions along it. Schooners there

were of all sizes, from little mackerel seiners to big four- and five-masters. A tug with a string of coal barges behind it was so close in, that they could make out the connecting hawsers. A black freight steamer was pushing along, leaving a thick line of smoke like a charcoal mark on the sky. One square-rigger was in sight, but far out.

"What do you make of that bark, Perez?" inquired Captain Eri, pointing to the distant vessel. "British, ain't she?"

Captain Perez leaned forward and peered from under his hand. "French, looks to me," he said. "Don't think so. Way she's rigged for'ard looks like Johnny Bull. Look at that fo'tops'l."

"Guess you're right, Eri, now I come to notice it. Can you make out her flag? Wish I'd brought my glass."

"Great Scott, man!" exclaimed Ralph. "What sort of eyes have you got? I couldn't tell whether she had a flag or not at this distance. How do do it?"

you

*From "Cap'n Eri"; copyright, 1904, by A. S. Barnes and Company.

""Cordin' to how you're brought up, as the goat said 'bout eatin' shingle-nails," replied Captain Eri. "When you're at sea you've jest got to git used to seein' things a good ways off and knowin' 'em when you see 'em, too."

"I remember, one time," remarked Mrs. Snow, "that my brother Nathan- he's dead now was bound home from Hong Kong fust mate on the bark Dimond King. 'Twas the time of the war and the Alabama was cruisin' 'round, lookin' out for our ships. Nate and the Skipper - - a Bangor

man he was

were on deck, and they sighted a

steamer a good ways off."

This set the captains going, and they told seastories until they came to the road that led down to the beach beneath the lighthouse bluff. The life-saving station was in plain sight now, but on the outer beach, and that was separated from them by a two-hundred-yard stretch of water. "Well," observed Captain Eri, "here's where we take Adam's bridge.

"Adam's bridge?" queried Elsie, puzzled.

"Yes; the only kind he had, I cal'late. Git-dap, Daniel! What are you waitin' for? Left your bathin' suit to home?"

Then, as Daniel stepped rather gingerly into the clear water, he explained that, at a time ranging from three hours before low tide to three hours after, one may reach the outer beach at this point by driving over in an ordinary vehicle. The life-savers add to this time-limit by using a specially built wagon, with large wheels and a body considerably elevated.

"Well, there now!" exclaimed the lady from Nantucket, as Daniel splashingly emerged on the other side. "I thought I'd done about everything a body could do with salt water, but I never went ridin' in it afore."