I.
_THE SEA-SHORE._
The hotel carriage rolled away from Mr. Bradford's door with papa andmamma, the two nurses and four little children inside, and such a lotof trunks and baskets on the top; all on their way to Quam Beach. Harryand Fred, the two elder boys, were to stay with grandmamma until theirschool was over; and then they also were to go to the sea-side.
The great coach carried them across the ferry, and then they all jumpedout and took their seats in the cars. It was a long, long ride, andafter they left the cars there were still three or four miles to goin the stage, so that it was quite dark night when they reached Mrs.Jones's house. Poor little sick Bessie was tired out, and even Maggie,who had enjoyed the journey very much, thought that she should be gladto go to bed as soon as she had had her supper. It was so dark that thechildren could not see the ocean, of which they had talked and thoughtso much; but they could hear the sound of the waves as they rolled upon the beach. There was a large hotel at Quam, but Mrs. Bradford didnot choose to go there with her little children; and so she had hiredall the rooms that Mrs. Jones could spare in her house. The rooms wereneat and clean, but very plain, and not very large, and so differentfrom those at home that Maggie thought she should not like them at all.In that which was to be the nursery was a large, four-post bedsteadin which nurse and Franky were to sleep; and beside it stood anold-fashioned trundle-bed, which was for Maggie and Bessie. Bessie wasonly too glad to be put into it at once, but Maggie looked at it withgreat displeasure.
"I sha'n't sleep in that nasty bed," she said. "Bessie, don't do it."
"Indeed," said nurse, "it's a very nice bed; and if you are going to bea naughty child, better than you deserve. That's a great way you haveof calling every thing that don't just suit you, 'nasty.' I'd like toknow where you mean to sleep, if you don't sleep there."
"I'm going to ask mamma to make Mrs. Jones give us a better one," saidMaggie; and away she ran to the other room where mamma was undressingthe baby. "Mamma," she said, "won't you make Mrs. Jones give us abetter bed? That's just a kind of make-believe bed that nurse pulledout of the big one, and I know I can't sleep a wink in it."
"I do not believe that Mrs. Jones has another one to give us, dear,"said her mother. "I know it is not so pretty as your little bed athome, but I think you will find it very comfortable. When I was alittle girl, I always slept in a trundle-bed, and I never restedbetter. If you do not sleep a wink, we will see what Mrs. Jones can dofor us to-morrow; but for to-night I think you must be contented withthat bed; and if my little girl is as tired as her mother, she will beglad to lie down anywhere."
Maggie had felt like fretting a little; but when she saw how pale andtired her dear mother looked, she thought she would not trouble her bybeing naughty, so she put up her face for another good-night kiss, andran back to the nursery.
"O, Maggie," said Bessie, "this bed is yeal nice and comf'able; comeand feel it." So Maggie popped in between the clean white sheets,and in two minutes she had forgotten all about the trundle-bed andeverything else.
When Bessie woke up the next morning, she saw Maggie standing by theopen window, in her night-gown, with no shoes or stockings on. "O,Maggie," she said, "mamma told us not to go bare-feeted, and you are."
"I forgot," said Maggie; and she ran back to the bed and jumped inbeside Bessie. "Bessie, there's such lots and lots of water out there!You never saw so much, not even in the reservoir at the Central Park."
"I guess it's the sea," said Bessie; "don't you know mamma said wewould see water and water ever so far, and we couldn't see the end ofit?"
"But I do see the end of it," said Maggie; "mamma was mistaken. I sawwhere the sky came down and stopped the sea; and, Bessie, I saw such awonderful thing,--the sun came right up out of the water."
"O, Maggie, it couldn't; _you_ was mistaken. If it went in the water itwould be put out."
"I don't care," said Maggie, "it _was_ the sun, and it is shining rightthere now. It isn't put out a bit. I woke up and I heard that noisemamma told us was the waves, and I wanted to see them, so I went tolook, and over there in the sky was a beautiful red light; and in aminute I saw something bright coming out of the water away off; and itcame higher and higher, and got so bright I could not look at it, andit was the sun, I know it was."
"But, Maggie, how didn't it get put out if it went in the water?"
"I don't know," said Maggie, "I'm going to ask papa."
Just then nurse and Jane came in with water for the children's bath,and before they were dressed, there was papa at the door asking ifthere were any little girls ready to go on the beach and find anappetite for breakfast. After that, nurse could scarcely dress themfast enough, and in a few moments they were ready to run down to thefront porch where papa was waiting for them.
"O, papa, what a great, great water the sea is!" said Bessie.
"Yes, dear; and what a great and wise God must He be who made this widesea and holds it in its place, and lets it come no farther than Hewills."
"Papa," said Maggie, "I saw the wonderfulest thing this morning."
"The most wonderful," said her father.
"The most wonderful," repeated Maggie. "It was indeed, papa, and youneed not think I was mistaken, for I am quite, quite sure I saw it."
"And what was this most wonderful thing you are so very sure you saw,Maggie?"
"It was the sun, papa, coming right up out of the water, and it was notput out a bit. It came up, up, away off there, where the sky touchesthe water. Mamma said we could not see the end of the ocean, but I seeit quite well. Do not you see it, too, papa?"
"I see what appears to be the end of the ocean, but these great watersstretch away for many hundred miles farther. If you were to get on aship and sail away as far as you can see from here, you would stillsee just as much water before you, and the sea and the sky would stillappear to touch each other: and however far you went it would always beso, until you came where the land bounds the ocean on the other side.The place where the sky and water seem to meet, is called the horizon;and it is because they do seem to touch, that the sun appeared toyou to come out of the water. It is rather a difficult thing for suchlittle girls as you and Bessie to understand, but I will try to makeit plain to you. You know that the earth is round, like a ball, do younot, Maggie?"
"Yes, papa."
"And I suppose that you think that the sun is moving when it seems tocome up in the morning, and goes on and on, till it is quite over ourheads, and then goes down on the other side of the sky until we can seeit no more, do you not?"
"Yes, papa."
"But it is really the earth on which we live, and not the sun, which ismoving. Once in twenty-four hours, which makes one day and one night,the earth turns entirely round, so that a part of the time one side isturned to the sun, and a part of the time the other side. See if youcan find me a small, round stone, Maggie."
Maggie looked around till she found such a stone as her father wanted,and brought it to him. "Now," he said, "this stone shall be our earth,and this scratch the place where we live. We will take off Bessie's hatand have that for the sun. Now I will hold the mark which stands forour home, directly in front of our make-believe sun. If a bright lightwere coming from the sun and shining on our mark here, it would be themiddle of the day or noon, while it would be dark on the other side.Then, as our earth moved slowly around in this way, and we turned fromthe sun it would become afternoon; and as we turned farther yet tillwe were quite away from the sun, it would be night. But we do not staythere in the dark, for we still go moving slowly round until our sideof the earth comes towards the light again, and the darkness begins topass away. The nearer we come to the sun the lighter it grows, until,if some little girl who lives on our scratch is up early enough andlooks out at the horizon, or place where the earth and sky seem tomeet, she sees the sun showing himself little by little; and it looksto her as if he were coming up out of the sea, while all the time thesun is standing still, and the earth on which we live is moving
roundso as to bring her once more opposite to him."
"And is it night on the other side of the world?" asked Maggie.
"Yes, there is no sun there now, and it is dark night for the littlechildren who live there."
"And are they going to have their supper while we have our brefix?"asked Bessie.
"Just about so, I suppose," said papa.
"But, papa," said Maggie with very wide open eyes, "do you mean thatthe world is going to turn way over on the other side tonight?"
"Yes, dear."
"Then we will fall off," said Maggie.
"Did you fall off last night?" asked papa.
"No, sir."
"And you have been living for nearly seven years, and every day of yourlife the earth has turned around in the same way, and you have neveryet fallen off, have you?"
"No, papa."
"Nor will you to-night, my little girl. The good and wise God who hasmade our earth to move in such a way as to give us both light anddarkness as we need them, has also given to it a power to draw towardsitself, all things that live or grow upon its surface. Do you know whatsurface means?"
"Yes, papa,--the top."
"Yes, or the outside. Suppose you were to fall off the top of thehouse, Maggie, where would you fall to?"
"Down in the street and be killed," said Maggie.
"Yes, down to the street or ground, and probably you would be killed.And it is because of this power which the earth has of drawing toitself all things that are upon it, that you would not fly off into theair and keep on falling, falling, for no one knows how many miles. Itis too hard a thing for you to understand much about now, but when youare older you shall learn more. But we have had a long enough lessonfor this morning. We will walk about a little, and see if we can findsome shells before we go in to breakfast."
They found a good many shells: some little black ones which Maggiecalled curlecues, and some white on the outside and pink inside. Thenthere were a few which were fluted, which the children said were theprettiest of all. They thought the beach was the best playground theyhad ever seen, and they were about right. First, there was the stripof smooth, white sand, on which the waves were breaking into beautifulsnowy foam, with such a pleasant sound; then came another space full ofpebbles and stones and sea-weed, with a few shells and here and therea great rock; then more rocks and stones with a coarse kind of grassgrowing between them; and beyond these, a few rough fir trees whichlooked as if they found it hard work to grow there. Last of all was along, sloping bank, on top of which stood Mr. Jones's house and two orthree others; and farther down the shore, the great hotel. And the airwas so fresh and cool, with such a pleasant smell of the salt water.
Maggie was full of fun and spirits, and raced about till her cheekswere as red as roses. There were several other people on the beach, andamong them were some little boys and girls. Two or three of these, whenthey saw Maggie running about in such glee began to race with her, butthe moment she noticed them she became shy and ran away from them toher father and Bessie who were walking quietly along.
"Papa," said Bessie "isn't it delicious?"
"Is not what delicious, my darling."
"I don't know," said Bessie. "_It._ I like Quam Beach, papa. I wish NewYork was just like this."
"It is this cool, fresh sea-breeze that you like so much, Bessie."
"And I like to see the water, papa, and to hear the nice noise itmakes."
"Yes, it's so pleasant here," said Maggie. "Let's stay here always,papa, and never go home."
"What! and sleep in the trundle-bed all your lives?" said papa.
"Oh, no," said Maggie, "I hate that bed. I believe I _did_ sleep alittle bit last night, because I was so tired; but I know I can't sleepin it to-night."
"Well," said papa, "I think we will try it for a night or two longer."
And then they all went in to breakfast.