Ten American Girls from HistorySweetser, Kate Dickinson
History
Ten American Girls from History
Sweetser, Kate Dickinson
United States -- Biography; Women -- Biography
Ida never knew all she said in response to the presentation speech;
she only knew that tears streamed down her cheeks as she gripped a
man's hand and said, "Thank you, thank you--I don't deserve it!" over
and over again, while the audience stood up and applauded to the echo.
As if that were not enough to overcome any young woman, as she left
the building, James Fisk, Jr., approached her and, grasping her hand
warmly, told her that there was to be a new boat-house built back of
the light, large enough for her beautiful new boat.
It was late that night before Ida fell asleep, lulled at last by the
wind and the lapping of the waves, and thinking with intense happiness
not of her own achievements, but of the pride and joy with which her
mother received the account of her daughter's ovation and gift, and
her words rang in Ida's ears above the noise of the waters, "Your
father would be so proud, dear!"
For fifty-three years Ida Lewis remained the faithful keeper of her
beloved light, and because of her healthy, out-of-door life we catch a
glimpse of the woman of sixty-five which reminds us strongly of the
girl who led the way to the lighthouse point on that day in 1841, to
show her new home to her schoolmates. In the face of howling winds and
winter gales she had snatched twenty-three lives from the jaws of
death, and in her sixty-fifth year she was at her old work.
A woman had rowed out to the light from Newport, and when her boat had
almost reached the pier which had been erected recently on the island
shore, she rashly stood on her feet, lost her balance and fell
overboard. Ida Lewis, who was rowing in near the pier, instantly came
to the rescue, helped the struggling and much frightened woman into
her own boat, and then picked up the other one, which was drifting
away.
Sixty-five years young, and heroic from earliest girlhood to latest
old age! We add our tribute to those heaped on her head by many who
knew her in person and others who were acquainted only with her heroic
acts, and we rejoice to know that in this year of American crisis we,
too, can reflect the heroism of the keeper of Lime Rock Light, for in
our hands are greater opportunities for wide service and greater
variety of instruments by which to mold the destiny of nations and
save life. Proud are we that we, too, are American, as was Ida Lewis,
and we can give interest as consecrated and sincere to the work at our
hand to-day as she gave, whose daily precepts were work and thrift,
and who said, in her quaint way, of the light which had been her
beacon of inspiration for so many years of service:
"The light is my child and I know when it needs me, even if I sleep.
This is home to me, and I hope the good Lord will take me away when I
have to leave it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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