No school! And the beautiful summer days coming so early in the
morning, that none of us children ever could get awake to see the sun
rise, and staying so long that we grew quite tired of being happy; and
some of us, Gracie and Jimmie in particular, were so little, that they
couldn't stay awake through the whole of it, and went off into a nap
every day after dinner.
But this was in the city, and when we arrived at the beach we didn't
get tired or cross the whole day long. There were many children at the
hotel, and when we came, with our dolls and toy boats, our
fishing-tackle and spades, and pails, we made a host of friends
immediately.
Reginald and Willie, our older brothers, did not always go with Gracie
and Jimmie and me, but made the acquaintance of the men that went out
to sea to fish for the great hotels; and they went oftentimes with
them, and we used to enjoy seeing the little boats launched; they
almost stood on end when they went over the breakers, making us scream
with excitement and delight. And as the little fleet grew less and
less, and at last disappeared, we girls thought it was a grand thing
to have such brave brothers.
I was the elder girl, being ten, and Gracie seven. Our Gracie was a
lovely little sister; she had large blue eyes, and wavy brown hair,
and was very gentle and obedient, and people called her "Pet," almost
as soon as they became acquainted with her.
Mother had blue flannel suits made for us, and dressed in these, with
sailor hats that had little tapping ribbons at the sides, we scurried
along the beach, climbed the rocks, or waded out into the salt water.
But we had on our very prettiest dresses in the evening, for the
children were allowed to have the grand parlor, and dance to the music
of the band until nine o'clock. This was a privilege we older ones
talked of continually, and looked forward to all day. We were so
dainty, genteel, and good-mannered for an hour, that it impressed
even ourselves; and boys and girls became models of gentleness and
polite behavior, and the effect of those delightful evenings has given
growth and direction to many graces in our character.
[Illustration: DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF THE BAND.]
But the little ones, like Gracie and her friends, really couldn't
stand the excitement, and rolled around in odd corners on the floor,
or sought the grateful obscurity behind the sofas, to indulge in naps,
long before nine o'clock. I found Gracie, in her pink silk dress and
violet slippers, lying curled up under the table, with her head on the
back of Bosin, the great Newfoundland dog that had stolen into the
parlor against rules.
Nelson Faber was a little boy, not much older than Gracie, and they
seemed to enjoy each other's society very much. He too oftentimes
succumbed to sleepiness when we wanted him to do his sailor dance; but
when the morning came, they were as rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed as
ever, and trotted along the pleasant walks with their hoops and pails,
inseparable friends. It was fortunate for Gracie, too, that he
preferred to play with her, rather than to go off with the boys, for
one day after a boisterous night, the sea came up higher on the beach
than we had ever before seen it; and unsuspecting Gracie was caught by
a wave and thrown down, and as it retired it seemed to drag her along
with it; we older ones lost our presence of mind entirely, and
screamed and cried, and did nothing, but that heroic little fellow ran
into the boiling surf and caught her dress, and with the dog's
assistance, dragged her to a safe place. She said he was, "Very nice
and dood."
One day, some of my girl companions proposed to visit the rocks that
lay at the mouth of Green river, just where it gently met the ocean.
Right there, no end of sea-weed and shells, and things thrown up by
the ocean, could be found; and there were such curious rocks, with
nooks and basins, where the water stayed in tiny pools, and there we
went fishing, and brought lunch, setting it out on the most convenient
flat rock we could find. I tell you, cold chicken, pickles, cheese,
and sponge cake, with milk, tasted as they never did before or since,
to our party of hungry children. We climbed and fell, and laughed, and
chatted, with the salt breeze lifting our hair, and fanning our brown
faces, and going out far on the point, we came upon a little shining
lake, surrounded by rocks, upon which we could sit, and dabble our
feet in the water. It was no place more than a foot deep, and we
decided to wade round in it. It was a comical sight to see us
navigating ourselves in procession through that water, but it was a
very questionable joke, when Milly Sayre jumped and screamed, and ran
like a frantic creature from the pool, and up the rocks.
"What's the matter, Milly," we cried. "Are you hurt? What did you
see?" we breathlessly shouted.
"Oh! oh!" was all she could gasp, pointing to a place she had just
left. We all scrambled out instantly, and peered over the rocks into
the water.
[Illustration: INSEPARABLE FRIENDS.]
What should we see but a little creature, grotesque and hideous, that
made its way round in the water, with astounding celerity, throwing
out legs or claws, or whatever they were, from every point of its
circumference. Its body was flat and was a green color above and pink
under, and to add to its alarming appearance, it looked at us with two
black eyes, in a very sinister and uncanny manner. We looked at each
other with blanched faces and speechless horror, and then kept a sharp
lookout, lest it might take it into its head (we couldn't tell if it
had any head, for the place where the eyes were, did not seem
different from any other part of its body,) take it into its "internal
consciousness," to crawl out on to the rocks and chase us. It got
through the water in a distracting manner, which was really quite
amusing after a few moments, and from being horribly frightened, we
became interested when we found it did not attempt the offensive. We
gave it some lunch and called it "Jack Deadeye," and for the whole
afternoon he was the center of attraction.
"Let us take him back with us," I proposed. "We can get him into a
pail, and then we can have him in some pool nearer home, and see what
he'll turn into. I don't believe but what he'll be something else in a
few days."
My knowledge of natural history had always been lamentably meager, and
more than once I had brought the laugh upon myself by my ignorance. So
I forbore to predict what would be his ultimate form of beauty.
"A whale!" said Susie Champney.
"Oh, dear, no; whales don't have legs and claws," said Estella Bascom.
"It's a tadpole."
"You're mistaken there," said Mamie Fitz Hugh; "tadpoles are just the
little jokers that do have tails. I've seen hundreds of them, and this
creature has no tail."
We all rushed again to the edge of the rocks to look at him, with
added wonder.
"Well, we'll take that tad home on a pole, any way," said Nannie
White, who was the cutest girl to say things in the whole crowd. She
immediately ran off to secure a piece of drift that was tumbling about
on the wet sand. But how to get him into a pail was the next problem.
A committee of the whole was called. I thought we could obstruct his
path by putting the mouth of the pail in front of him, and then when
he sailed into it, we could instantly pull him out. This was decided
upon; but how to get it down to him without falling in? A bright idea
struck me. I whipped off my flannel sash, and running it through the
handle, dashed it into the water; but that proceeding only frightened
him--we must move more cautiously. We worked for an hour and had him
in twice, but were so excited both times that he escaped.
First time, Totty Rainsford shouted, "We've got him!" and immediately
rolled off the rocks, head first, into the water. We were all so
scared, with the water splashing, and she screaming at the top of her
voice, "Save me! Save me!" that Jack got away. She scrambled out
pretty lively, and when we got him in again, we were all seized with
another fit of laughing at Totty, who, in her moist predicament, was
jumping round to dry herself, because she didn't want to go home, that
he crawled out as leisurely as possible. But we secured him at last,
safe in the pail; and to prevent his crawling out, I clapped my sailor
hat over the top of it, and the elastic kept it down tight. We put the
pole through the handle and Estella and myself took hold of the ends,
and we came near losing him every few minutes, owing to the
inequalities of the ground. The pail would slide down to either end,
as the pole inclined, and Estella would drop it and scream when she
saw the pail traveling noiselessly toward her, and if it hadn't been
for my happy thought of putting the hat over him, he'd have got away
to his "happy hunting grounds," or rather, waters, in short order.
We arrived at the hotel at last, with Jack all safe, and the rest of
the girls went to dress for dinner, and left me to find the boys, to
help me deposit him in a secure place, for we were sure we should very
greatly astonish the boarders and achieve renown as having discovered
a new species of marine beast.
The boys were in a perfect ecstacy of curiosity to see what the girls
had caught. When I carefully took off the hat, I found the water had
all leaked out, and his monstership lay kicking and crawling at the
bottom.
"Ho! ho! ho!" shouted Willie, "is that what-cher call a curiosity?"
"Oh, Flossie! you have been dreadfully taken in," said Regy.
"Oh, no," I said, "it's this wonderful animal that's been 'taken in,'
and he's going to be kept in, too."
I began to feel, though, that there was a great laugh somewhere in the
future, and that it was coming at our expense.
"Why, Flossie! it's nothing but a baby crab," said Regy. "I can get a
peck of them in an hour, over in the river."
I felt greatly chagrined, and blushed with mortification. The boys
kept bursting out laughing every few minutes, asking such questions
as:
[Illustration: HOW MANY GIRLS DID IT TAKE TO LAND HIM?]
"How many girls did it take to land him?" "Was he gamey, Flossie?"
"Did ye bait him with a clam-shell, or an old boot? they'll snap at
any thing."
"Oh! I'd given away my dinner to have been there!" and then Regy would
stir him up with a stick, and turn him on his back, all of which
caused me to scream every time, and sent tremors all over me.
"What-cher goin' to do with him?" inquired Willie.
"I shall study his habitudes, and improve my knowledge of the
crustacea," said I, giving him a sentence directly out of my
text-book. "I shall look at him every day."
"Yes, and he'll look at you every night. I have read a book that told
about a traveler that offended a crab once, and he informed the other
crabs, and they all made for him at night, and twenty thousand of them
came that night and crept under his tent, and sat there and looked at
him. And there he was in the middle of them, and you know their eyes
are fastened in their heads by a string, and they can throw them out
of their heads and draw them back again; and, at a signal, they all
threw their eyes at him. He was so horrified that night, that he got
insane and had to be sent to a lunatic asylum."
"I've heard your stories before, Regy, and I simply don't credit them.
We girls are going to hunt up a pond to put him in, where we can pet
him, and educate him."
"You'd best hunt up a frying pan to put him in; he's capital eating
for breakfast, well browned, with hard-boiled eggs and parsley round
him," said Reginald.
I told him if he couldn't do any better than to lie there and make an
exhibition of his bad taste and ignorance, he'd better get up and work
off the fit. I insisted upon his helping me to fill the pail with salt
water, and hang him upon the rocks until we could make a future,
permanent disposal of him.
[Illustration: "WHERE WE CAN PET AND EDUCATE HIM."]
That evening our parlor manners were somewhat less decorous and
elegant, owing to the fact that Reginald and Willie had been
industriously circulating the episode of the morning, with such
additions as they thought would add point and piquancy, among the rest
of the boys, and there was no end of innuendo and witticism indulged
in, that caused the young gentlemen to retire in groups and laugh; and
we could hear such remarks as, "Dick, there was a whale hooked on this
coast this afternoon, did you know it?" Or, "I think Jack Deadeye is
the most comical character in Pinafore, he's so crabbed."
The girls of our party stood it as they best could; and in the morning
we stole out to look at our prize, after the boys had gone off, but
the tide had swept Jack and the pail out to sea.
It was a long time before we heard the last of it, however.
[Illustration: {A SMALL SAILING BOAT.}]