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Updated: May 31, 2025
'Twas great business! No wonder the life-savers set off fireworks! And thunder! Why, say, it never stopped thunderin' in that storm except when somebody had to make a heroic speech; then it let up and give 'em a chance. Most considerate thunder ever I heard. And the lightnin'! and the way the dust flew from the breakers!
Over hummocks of sand and wreckage, across little inlets made by the waves, in the face of blinding sleet and staggering wind, the life-savers dragged the beach wagon on the run. Through the mist and shrouding white of the storm the outlines of the stranded vessel could just be distinguished. Bringing the wagon to the nearest point, the crew unloaded their appliances.
While he strained with longing to go down and show himself a man not just a scullion in an unsuccessful tea-room Father stood on the edge of the cliff and watched the life-savers launch the boat, saw them disappear from the radius of the calcium carbide beach-light into the spume of surf. He didn't even wait to see them return. Mother needed him, and he trotted back to tell her all about it.
Matthews had no reward for this piece of work, and is now a poor pitman. There is no end to the bravery of these amateur life-savers. Only a very little while ago a ship came on shore. The sea was like a huge pouring cataract, and the wind pressed like a solid body. The dandy new lifeboats were beaten back; the men on board tugged and strained till they were exhausted.
"They're in no danger at all," said Dab, "If their own boats don't take 'em all ashore, the coast-wreckers will." "The government life-savers, I s'pose you mean." "Yes: they're all alongshore, here, everywhere. Hark! there goes the distress-gun. Bang away! It sounds a good deal more mad than scared." So it did; and so they were, captain, pilot, passengers, and all.
The outer edge of the cliff was outlined by the light. "It's a wreck!" he whooped. "It's the life-savers! Mother, I'm going down. Maybe there's something I can do. I want to do something again! Maybe some poor devil coming ashore in the breeches buoy help him ashore Don't suppose I could row "
The life-savers' work is not over when the crew of a vessel is saved, for the apparatus must be packed on the beach wagon and returned to the station, while the shipwrecked crew is provided with dry clothing, fed, and cared for. The patrol continues on his beat throughout the night without regard to the hardships that have already been undergone.
How he'd been blew up in mines; squizzled down a mountain on a snow-slide; chawed by a bear; caught under a felled tree; sunk on a Missouri River steamboat, and her afire, so you couldn't tell whether to holler for the life-savers or the fire-engine; shot up by Injuns and personal friends; mistook for a horse-thief by the committee, and much else, closing the list with his right bower. 'And, Mr.
"Into the water after 'em, boys! Come on, ye old seadogs!" There was a snap the rope had parted, but so near to the beach were the two that the life-savers waded into the foam and spume, and grabbed them, holding them safe. They were hauled to the beach, on which huddled the others who had been saved from the wreck.
"Something gone wrong with her rudder, they say. She's goin' spang onto the reef. Ev'rybody's down there, an' the life-savers are comin' around from Wellriver with their gear." "Gale out o' the no'theast, too!" exclaimed Cap'n Joab, starting for the door. The story-teller saw his audience melt away in a minute. He went out on the porch.
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