“What a terrible death!” Lulu said with a shudder, and clinging more tightly to her father’s hand; “every one drowned and may be half frozen for hours before they died.  Oh, papa, I wish you didn’t belong to the navy, but lived all the time on land!  I am so afraid your ship will be wrecked some time,” she ended with a sob.

“It is not only upon the water that people die by what we call accident, daughter,” the captain answered; “many horrible deaths occur on land—­many to which drowning would in my opinion be far preferable.

“But you must remember that we are under God’s care and protection everywhere, on land and on sea; and that if we are His children no real evil can befall us.  I am very glad you love me, my child, but I would not have you make yourself unhappy with useless fears on my account.  Trust the Lord for me and all whom you love.”

They pressed onward and presently came upon a lovely lakelet near the beach, as clear as crystal and with bushes with dark green foliage growing on all sides but that toward the sea.

They stopped for a moment to gaze upon it with surprise and admiration, then pushed on again till the top of the high bluff known as Tom Never’s Head was reached.

They stood upon its brink and looked off westward and northward over the heaving, tumbling ocean, as far as the eye could reach to the line where sea and sky seemed to meet, taking in long draughts of the pure, invigorating air, and listening to the roar of the breakers below.

“What is that down there?” asked Lulu.

“Part of a wreck, evidently,” answered her father; “it must have been there a long while, it is so deeply imbedded in the sand.”

“I wish I knew its story,” said Lulu; “I hope everybody wasn’t drowned when it was lost.”

“It must have happened years ago, before that life-saving station was built,” remarked Max.

“Life-saving station,” repeated Lulu, turning to look in the direction of his glance; “what’s that?”

“Do you not know what that means?” asked her father.  “It is high time you did.  Those small houses are built here and there all along our coast by the general government, for the purpose of accommodating each a band of surf-men, who are employed by the government to keep a lookout for vessels in distress, and give them all the aid in their power.

“They are provided with lifeboats, buoys, and other necessary things to enable them to do so successfully.  If it were not too near breakfast time I should take you over there to see their apparatus; but we must defer it to some other day, which will be quite as well, for then we may bring a larger party with us.  Now for home,” he added, again taking Lulu’s hand; “if your appetites are as keen as mine you will be glad to get there and to the table.”

“Two good hours to bathing-time,” remarked Mr. Dinsmore, consulting his watch as they rose from the breakfast table.  “I propose that we utilize them in a visit to Sankaty lighthouse.”