upon the edge of the rock. She at once broke in two pieces, the after part, with about twenty passengers, the captain and his wife, being swept right away into the black waters. The front 5 half was lifted up on the rock. In the fore cabin was a poor woman with a child in each arm. When the vessel struck, the waves rushed into the cabin, but the mother, crouched in a corner, kept her place. First one 10 and then the other child died from cold and fright, and was swept out of sight by the cruel waves, though the poor soul herself lived through all the horrors of the night. About a mile from Longstone, the island on 15 which the vessel struck, lies Brownsman. This is the outermost of the Farne Islands, and the lighthouse stands on it. In 1838 the keeper of the lighthouse was William Darling. He was an elderly, almost an old, man; and the only other 20 people in the lighthouse were his wife and his daughter Grace, a girl of twenty-two. On the night of the wreck Grace was lying awake, and heard the cries that came across the wild waters; but in the darkness they could do nothing. At length the day broke, and in the gray morning light they could see, with the help of a glass, the wreck on Longstone Island, and could make 5 out figures moving on it. Between the two islands a heavy sea was running, so that the passage would be very hard for even a good boat rowed by strong men. But the only boat on the lighthouse was a clumsy 10 jolly-boat, and the only crew an old man and a young girl to face an angry sea and a tide dead against them. At first Darling would not undertake anything so dangerous, but Grace could not rest. There 15 were men in great peril on the other side of that rough mile of sea, and she could not stay where she was and see them die. So off they set, the old man taking one oar, the girl the other, and both rowing with all their strength through the waves, 20 which might at any minute swamp their boat or dash it on the rocks. Even if they got the poor people off the wreck, perhaps they could not get them back to the lighthouse. The tide was at the turn and would be against them on their homeward way; in fact, death seemed to face them on every side. When they got near enough to Longstone, 5 Darling jumped on the rock, and Grace quickly pulled away from it, and by rowing hard all the time managed to keep the boat from being stranded. There were now only nine alive on the wreck, 10 and it is hard to say how they were got safely into the boat, tired out and helpless as they were; but they were got into it at last, and two of the men saved helped to row the boat back to Brownsman, which was safely reached. 15 When, after several days, the storm abated, and an account of Grace's brave deed was printed, her praise was in all the newspapers and on all men's lips. Artists came from far to paint her portrait; poets wrote about her; she was offered twenty 20 pounds a night to show herself in London. she never could be got to see that she had done anything out of the ordinary; and she remained But a simple, unspoiled girl to the end of her short life. breakers (brāk'erz): waves cargo (kär'go): a ship's freight crag (krăg): a steep rock crouched (kroucht): bent low engineer (en'ji nēr') helm (helm) steering-wheel Hull (hul): a seaport town on the Northumberland (nôr thŭm'ber lnd) : a county in the north of England passenger (pas'sen-jer) portrait (por'trāt): likeness rescue (res'ku): to save rugged (rugged): rough sloop (sloop) a small sailing-vessel HELPS TO STUDY This is a true story. And the name of Grace Darling has been ever since among the names of our real heroes. 1. Where did Grace Darling live? 2. What was her father's work? 3. What danger to the ship did she see? 4. What did she do to save the passengers? 5. How well did she succeed? 6. What reward had she? 7. What stories of bravery can you recall? 8. Imagine that you were on the Forfarshire and describe the rescue. |