"Now, boys," said the Squire, when the breakfast was over, "time flies.
Harry, you tell Sam to bring the dog-cart round. Philip and Fred, you
help me to get the jars and bottles into the hall."
This was soon done, and, the cart coming round, it was packed with the
different odds and ends that naturalists take with them when going to
the sea-side; and also with those agreeable refreshments taken by all
people, whether naturalists or not, when they anticipate being by the
rocks and shingle for a few hours in the fresh sea-breeze. The boys
then eagerly took their places, the horse leaped to the light shake of
the reins given by the Squire, Sam left its head, Mamma waved her
handkerchief from the porch, the gate was passed, and away they went
bowling over the hard road, and past, green trees, hedges, and fields,
with the sweet smell of new-turned hay borne on the morning breeze,
while the sky above seemed clearer and brighter than ever.
"Now, boys, which way shall we go; down by the marsh, or along the
upland at once to the rocks?"
"Oh, through the marsh, Papa!" said Harry; "and then you can drive along
the sands to the rocks. It is so nice and quiet riding along the
sands."
"Yes," said his father; "but how about old Tom, here? He won't like
dragging all you great fellows through the heavy sand; will you, Tom?"
Old Tom on hearing his master's cheery voice gave his head a toss, as
much as to say, "I should think not," and then trotted along faster than
ever, making the wheels spin round, and the dust fly in a cloud behind
them.
And now they began to leave the woods behind: the hedges began to get
scarcer and shorter, and at last they were out in the marsh--a marsh no
longer, but a large and far spreading plain, divided by broad drains and
ditches, and dotted over with enormous cattle grazing in the rich fat
grass; while here and there the land seemed waving in the gentle breeze
as it lightly passed over the bending crops of wheat, oats, rye, and
barley. Here and there were farmhouses scattered at wide interval while
in the distance stood a church with a few houses clustered round it, and
towards this point Fred could now see that the road tended. Soon they
could see the high bank that guarded the marsh from the ravages of the
sea in its angry moments; and away to the right the beetling cliffs,
with the downs running up to the summits, and ending in a sheer
precipice three or four hundred feet deep, at whose foot it was said a
man-of-war had once been wrecked, and all souls drowned. Down beneath
the cliff, too, were the rocks of every fantastic shape or form, now
with the water just gently lapping their weed-hung sides, but in stormy
weather covering them with foam as it alternately showed their grim and
jagged shapes, or hid them from view. Woe, then, to the unfortunate
vessel that came amongst them, for the pitiless waves would lift it up
bodily, and then dash it down upon the cruel stones, shivering it to
pieces, and sending the splintered fragments to beat against the tall
cliffs or strew the shore! But the sea was now placid and beautiful,
with the sun making his beams glance off the heaving waves in far
spreading rays, while the tiny retiring wavelets left their marks upon
the sand in little ripple-marks, covered all over with the casts
thrown-up by the sea-worms.
Old Tom had no heavy drag over the sands, for the boys were down in an
instant, racing over the flat surface, while Mr Inglis drove gently on
towards the rocks, where he drew up the car, took out Tom, secured him
to the wheel, and left him at last with his nose-bag on, under the
shadow of the rocks, nibbling his corn, and whisking the flies away with
his long tail. His master then took a bottle or two, and a couple of
hand-nets and a hammer, and walked down towards the water's edge. Soon
the boys joined him, loaded already; for there were such heaps of
treasures--long razor shells, whelk and cockle shells, limpets, mussels,
periwinkles, star-fish in the pools, seaweed of all shapes and colours,
shrimps; while all over the sand where they stood, busy sea-lice were
hopping about in myriads.
Mr Inglis sent the boys for another glass jar or two, and an iron bar
that lay at the bottom of the cart; and then down they went towards
low-water mark, and searched amid the rocky pools till the Squire found
one to his satisfaction, when he stopped.
"Now, Fred," he said, "you shall see what wondrous things there are in a
little pool, by the sea-side."
And now, peering down into the clear, still water, they looked into a
little submarine forest of weeds--nay, of beautiful branching miniature
trees; while on the rocks were what seemed to Fred like flowers of the
most beautiful colours.
"Now, Fred," said Mr Inglis, "fill your jar with water, and pick that
fine fellow off the rock."
"It won't bite, will it?" said Fred, nervously, for he felt somehow that
it was not what it seemed.
"Bite? no!" laughed his cousins; "look here," and Harry turned up his
sleeve and touched the beautifully tinted petals.
In a moment they were gone, and in their place a dull-looking thing,
like a piece of soaking wet leather. At the solicitations of his
cousins, however, and following their example, Fred soon had several
dull, dumpy-looking discs in his jar. But now their attention was
called to Mr Inglis, who had found a specimen of the brittle star-fish,
which soon showed its right to the name by throwing off a couple of
ray-like arms. Next there were pinky-looking sea-slugs to gaze upon;
and at last, under a stone which Mr Inglis turned over with the iron
bar, such a myriad of objects for wonder and admiration, that all eyes
were directed to the different specimens, while every ear was open to
drink in the descriptions given by Mr Inglis. One of the curiosities
was a long, thin black ribbon, coiled and twisted about in all sorts of
awkward bends and curves; and this Mr Inglis told them was a curious
worm that lay with one end--the tail--firmly anchored to a stone, while
with the head it seized the first thing that touched it as it swam by.
Then would begin a struggle, the trapped one darting off, and dragging
to get away; while the worm, tough, thin, and pliant as a fishing-line,
let it play about till tired out, when the thin, black-looking monster
would quietly swallow his prey, boa-constrictor fashion, till nothing
was visible of it but a large knob in the worm's thin body. Then there
were polypes; hermit-crabs with their tails in cast-off shells; tiny
shell-fish tightly clinging to the stones; boring shells, weeds, and
tangles, swarming with innumerable tiny living forms; and so at last
bottles and jars were as well filled as was possible with treasures
enough to afford them amusement for the next month.
They were all so busy that they did not notice the return of the tide;
but there is was, creeping slowly, surely, and silently in; and all at
once in came a fresh supply of water to the little pool, and showed our
visitors how soon it would be covered by the coming waters. And so they
had to retreat before the tide, like King Canute is said to have done,
years ago. They took all their treasures to the car; and then set to
work to unpack the basket which Mamma had prepared for the trip. And,
oh, how they enjoyed that meal, sitting as they were upon the sands,
with the cloth spread between them! There never was such delicious cold
chicken before, nor yet such ham, such currant and raspberry and cherry
tart, such a bottle of cream, that wouldn't come out, it was so thick,
but had to be poked forth with a fork. Everything was delicious, down
to the lemonade in the big bottle, although it had grown rather warm
through standing in the sun. Altogether it was a glorious repast, eaten
as it was on that delightful day, the dimpling sea spreading out before
them as far as the eye could reach, with here and there a white sail
like a speck upon the vast expanse.
At last the lunch or dinner was ended, and then there was plenty more to
do and see. There was the old man sitting in his donkey-cart, very
stupidly as Fred thought, driving it along in the shallow water; but
when they came nearer they could see there were a couple of ropes
dragging behind; and just as they came up, out drove the old man very
slowly, and the two ropes at the tail of the cart dragged forth a long
shrimping-net, in which, for the first time, Fred saw hundreds upon
hundreds of the curious-looking crustaceans crawling about, black and
ugly, and in company with numbers of little silvery fish, which the old
man threw out, whereupon they shuffled their little bodies down out of
sight in the wet sand. Fred was about to rake them out again, but a
word of warning restrained him, for they were the little sticklebacks of
the sea, only their prickles made wounds of a poisonous nature that were
a long time getting well.
Mr Inglis bought a basketful of the shrimps, although Fred said they
were black ones and not good; but he changed his mind when they came up
for tea, hot and red, and steaming from cook's saucepan.
Then the old man drove in again to his shrimping, and our party stopped
to examine the jelly-fish, like glass paper-weights, which were left
upon the sand, while Mr Inglis pointed out two or three which had been
left by the morning tide, and were now dried up to a thin, filmy skin.
There was plenty to see. On the cliffs there was samphire in abundance,
which they could easily gather, without hanging half-way down like
Shakespeare's samphire-gatherer. They picked a good bunch for cook to
pickle; and collected so many things of all sorts and kinds that Papa at
last cried, "Hold, enough!" for poor Tom would never be able to get
everything home. Pockets, baskets, handkerchiefs, even thing was full.
There were perforated stones; shells of all kinds; sea-weeds; dry
star-fish; pieces of jet; bright pebbles; smooth pearly pieces of
oyster-shell; tiny pebbles bright and glistening; in short, such a
collection of treasures that Mr Inglis looked at his watch and declared
it was time to go, for they would have to travel slowly on account of
the live specimens. One thing remained to do, and that was to fill the
great stone bottle, brought on purpose, with water for the new aquarium.
"Gluggle, gluggle--blob, blob," went the big bottle as the air rushed
out, displaced by the salt-water, till the great thing was full,
securely corked, and deposited in the car. Tom's nose-bag was taken
off, his bit replaced, the boys mounted, for they were too tired to walk
along the sands, and they began their noiseless journey homewards, where
they arrived just as the sun was beginning to sink behind the hills, and
turning everything to burnished gold.