eA TREASURE FYROM THE SEA.

OST of us only know the sea in the beautiful summer weather, when
M the little waves roll one after another on the bright yellow sands ; when
we spend the days paddling, building sand-castles, and fishing for
shrimps and little crabs. That is the sea as we know it, but not as our brave
sailors and fishermen know it. They who have to live at sea all the year
round have to face and brave terrible storms,— storms that bring sorrow to
so many.

This is a story of a poor fisherman and a storm.at sea.

Seven years ago, one autumn day, the wind began to blow. I don’t
know whether the wind had a spite against one particular cottage, or whether
the windows in that cottage were particularly rickety; but I do know that they
rattled and rattled until Joe and Bessie, the fisherman and his wife who lived
there, began to think that the cottage, windows and all, would be blown
away.

Joe and Bessie sighed — the wind and the rain were enough to make any-
body sigh, but these two had more than that to make them unhappy. The
fact was they had no money, and the rent of the little cottage was over-
due, and the landlord said they must go. Poor Joe had lost his boat in
a storm a month before, the one pig had been taken ill and died, and the
two hens wouldn’t lay any eggs—so you see they had quite enough to be
miserable and sigh about.

Joe and Bessie sat hand in hand, and although they had often wished they
had had a little baby, they were pleased now to think that they had not,
because how terrible it would have been to have a little child to tell them
it was hungry, if they had nothing to give it to eat.

“To-morrow,” said Joe, looking through the window at the stormy sky,
‘‘we must leave here, and bid good-by to the village.”

OG.
_ we are better off than some others. Think of the poor sailors at sea to-day,

said his wife, ‘don’t be cast down: our lot is a very hard one, but

and their wives sitting at home listening to the winds howling. We have
each other to console, so that is something.” At that moment the cottage
door suddenly opened, and the weather-beaten face of one of Joe’s friends
appeared for an instant. _

“ Hulloa, there!” he cried, ‘‘There’s been a wreck, and the wood is
drifting in; come aad help us get it up the beach.”