'Yes! we do our best, but it is very seldom our help comes
in time to be worth much. Once or twice we have saved a solitary seaman
by throwing a rope, or by sending in our dogs to drag others ashore; and
some years ago there were seven men wrecked in the night, unknown to us.
When the morning came, I was out early and discovered footmarks along
the shore, which told me a tale I could read plain enough. I knew there
had been a fearful gale some hours before, and my mind misgave me that
these poor creatures, whose footsteps I saw, would perish of hunger in
the interior, where they could find nothing to eat, and where there was
not a solitary cottage at which they could get help.
"'Well; I determined to track them, and I called up my brother, who was
a strong, active young fellow; and we followed them, and found them at
last, just as they had given up all hope, and had laid down to die. For
three days and nights they had tasted neither food nor drink. When first
they caught sight of us, I shall never forget their faces.
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