LOIS. 4?

face, she said never a word to Silas, who was straining every
muscle to keep the boat from the rocks; but presently a wild
gust of wind sent it upon one of the outlying boulders and
drove a hole through it; quickly it began to fill.

“There is nothing to do but to swim for it,” said Silas, and
he caught the little one, bidding her keep still and not struggle
or they would both be drowned.

The next thing Lois knew she was lying on the shore, with
anxious faces bending over her and kind hands chafing her
little cold ones. She opened her eyes. “Silas,” she said.

“He is safe,” they told her, and wrapping her in warm
blankets they carried her home with her mother beside her.
The poor mother had gone down to the shore at the first sign —
of a storm, fearing for her darling’s safety. Unheeding the
rain and wind, she strained her eyes for a sight of the little
boat, and, seeing it helplessly driven toward the rocks, she
hurried to the neighbors, and they all ran to the spot in time
to save the little girl and the old man, just as the latter had
swum the last stroke he was able to, and the eager hands drew
them in, and they were safe. .

It nearly broke the old man’s heart to think that death
should come so near his pet when she was with him, but they
comforted him by telling him the winds and waves were not in
his hands, and that no man could have done more.

Poor Silence had a hard time of it; when the boat was
broken up on the rocks she floated out, being made of wood,