23. HOLY ISLAND AND THE FARNE ISLANDS.

1. At the north-east corner of England there is a small island called Holy Island. It received this name because there dwelt on it, more than a thousand years ago, a missionary named Aidan, who had come from Iona, the island home of St. Columba.

2. Oswald, the King of Northumbria, was so wishful to help the missionary, that he used to stand by the preacher's side and translate his words into the language of his people. King Oswald also founded an abbey on Lindisfarne. There the ruins of a later building still remain to mark this island as the Iona of the north of England.

3. Holy Island is about nine miles in circumference. It is joined to the mainland by a bank of sand which is bare at low water. On this island the Danes first landed when they crossed the North Sea to invade England.

4. Eight miles farther south there is a group of small islands called the Farne Islands, famous as the scene of Grace Darling's heroism.

5. One wild and stormy night in September 1838 a small steamer, the Forfarshire, was battling with the billows off the coast of Northumberland. The captain, unable to control his vessel, was obliged to let her drift before the storm. Soon the terrible cry arose," Breakers to leeward!" and directly afterwards the Farne lights were seen. The captain did his best to keep the ship clear of the islands, but in vain; she struck heavily on the outermost of the group.

6. Immediately one of the boats was lowered, and with nine persons in it was pushed off; but not before one or two of those on board of the steamer had fallen into the sea and perished in the attempt to escape. Those in this boat were picked up by a passing ship in the morning.

7. Meanwhile the waves dashed the wreck again and again on the rock, and at last a larger billow than the rest lifted the vessel and let her fall on its sharp edge. In a moment she broke in two, and the after part, with the greater number of the passengers, was swept away.

8. The fore part of the steamer, with the few who had taken refuge on it, remained fast on the

rock. For hours they were exposed to the fury of the storm, and it seemed as if they would certainly be swept into the raging sea before daybreak.

9. Morning came at last; and through the glimmering dawn and driving spray the light-housekeeper, William Darling, and his daughter Grace, from their lonely watch-tower, saw the wreck, which was about a mile away.

10. Grace, fired with an intense desire to save life, urged her father to launch their little boat. At first he held back. There was no one at the light-house except himself, his wife, and his daughter. What could such a crew do in a little open boat in so wild a sea?

11. But the earnest pleading of the heroic girl was not to be resisted. Her father consented; and the little boat pushed off with the father and the daughter in it alone. With what a thrill of joy and hope did the persons on the wreck see the boat dancing on the crested waves towards them. But how great was their surprise when they found that one of their rescuers was- -a woman!

12. One by one the sufferers were got into the boat, and with great difficulty rowed to the lighthouse. Here, owing to the violence of the sea, they were detained for nearly three days.

13. Grace Darling's heroism was soon told throughout the land, and high and low joined to do her honour. Letters and gifts were sent from all parts of Britain.

14. A few years after the rescue of the shipwrecked crew, Grace Darling died; and two beautiful monuments were erected to her memory.

"And out of her lonely grave

She bids us this lesson prove

That the weakest may wipe some tears that flow,

And the strongest power for good below

Is the might of unselfish love."

SUMMARY.-Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland, contains the ruins of Lindisfarne Abbey. Farne Islands, eight miles south of Holy Island, were the scene of Grace Darling's heroism in 1838, when she assisted her father to save the lives of some shipwrecked persons.

24. THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

1. In the south of England, off the coast of Hampshire, and separated from the mainland by a narrow strait or channel called the Solent, lies the beautiful Isle of Wight.

2. It is the largest island in the English Channel, being twenty-two miles long and thirteen miles broad. A voyage round its coast would make a distance of about sixty miles.

3. People who live on the south coast of England speak of it as "The Island;" and it may well be called the island of England, for no other island on our coasts is so often spoken of or can compare with it in beauty. It is the garden of England.

4. An hour's sail from Southampton brings us to Cowes, at the mouth of the Medina, the chief stream of