THE little cliff-side village In sleepy stillness lay, When the fishers' boats, at daybreak, Set sail from Bunswick Bay.

" God keep our sons and husbands, And bring them safely home I " Was the prayer that wives and mothers Sent o'er the ocean foam.

And many a stalwart fisher, With ne'er a thought of fear, Prayed, " Grant us, Lord, a safe return To wife and children dear 1" But hark! the wind is rising, The sky is overcast, The heavy clouds hang dark and low, And rain falls thick and fast.

Oft from the cottage windows, Throughout the weary day, The women gaze, with anxious eyes, Out on the stormy Bay.

Till, as the shades of evening Fall o'er the raging foam, They spy, afar across the sea, The boats returning home.

A crowd of eager watchers Is gathered on the beach; Ah! who can tell what anxious thoughts Bise in the heart o£ each? The men are striving bravely 'Gainst angry wind and wave; While the women watch in anguish, All powerless to save.

"Can we do nought to save them?" Rang out in accents wild; "Must they be lost in sight of home— In sight of wife and child? "Quick! let us launch the Life-boat, And save our husbands' lives; Hands may be weak, but hearts are strong, For we are sailors' wives." Bravely those women laboured, The fishers' lives to save; They dragged the Life-boat to the beach, And launched it on the wave.

Boys helped to row that Life-boat, In spite of tempest's roar; Old men put forth, their failing strength, And bent them to the oar.

Ah! who can tell the perils That little vessel braved? Until, at length, the boats were reached, And every man was saved.

Bravely the boat aped homeward, Freighted with precious lives— Lives that had all been lost that night But for the fishers' wives.

Oft, by the winter fireside, Throughout the years to come, The tale will be re-told again, In many a cottage home.

AH honour to those women 1 True heroines were they; The fishers' wives who launched the boat That night, at Runswick Bay.

Dalston.

M. BAILEY..