I
thanked God for his glory.
"O, papa, it's so jolly--so jolly!" shouted the children as I passed them
again.
"What is it that's so jolly, Charlie?" I asked.
"My castle," screeched Harry in reply; "only it's tumbled down. The water
_would_ keep coming in underneath."
"I tried to stop it with a newspaper," cried Charlie, "but it wouldn't. So
we were forced to let it be, and down it went into the ditch."
"We blew it up rather than surrender," said Dora. "We did; only Harry
always forgets, and says it was the water did it."
I drew near the rock that held the bath. I had never approached it from
this side before. It was high above my head, and a stream of water was
flowing from it. I scrambled up, undressed, and plunged into its dark
hollow, where I felt like one of the sea-beasts of which I had been
dreaming, down in the caves of the unvisited ocean. But the sun was over
my head, and the air with an edge of the winter was about me. I dressed
quickly, descended on the other side of the rock, and wandered again on the
sands to seaward of the breakwater, which lay above, looking dry and
weary, and worn with years of contest with the waves, which had at length
withdrawn defeated to their own country, and left it as if to victory and a
useless age of peace.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35