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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77801 ***
+
+Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+                      WILLIE AND LUCY AT THE
+
+                             SEA-SIDE.
+
+
+                     FOR VERY LITTLE CHILDREN.
+
+
+                             BY A. G.
+
+                        _[Agnes Giberne]_
+
+
+
+                              LONDON:
+                    THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
+          56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD;
+                        AND 164, PICCADILLY.
+
+
+
+                              LONDON:
+        PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STANFORD STREET
+                        AND CHARING CROSS.
+
+
+
+                             CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER.
+
+   I. WAKING
+
+  II. THE JOURNEY
+
+ III. THE SEA
+
+  IV. SPADES AND SAND
+
+   V. WILLIE IN BED
+
+  VI. A DONKEY RIDE
+
+ VII. A RAINY DAY
+
+VIII. ROUGH WEATHER
+
+  IX. A ROW ON THE WATER
+
+
+
+                      WILLIE AND LUCY AT THE
+
+                             SEA-SIDE.
+
+                           [Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. 
+
+WAKING.
+
+"WAKE up! Wake up! Master Willie."
+
+Willie Gray rubbed his eyes, and sat up in the bed. Then he lay down
+again, and hid his face in the pillow.
+
+"I'm so sleepy, nurse. I don't want to get up yet."
+
+"Not get up yet, Master Willie, with the sun shining, and the birds
+singing like this? See;" and she drew the curtains aside, letting a
+bright sunbeam stream on his rosy face and tumbled hair—"it would be a
+shame to sleep any longer."
+
+Willie's eyes were open by this time, and nurse added, "You forget, I
+think, where we are all going to-day."
+
+"To the sea-side!" said Willie, clapping his hands, and wide awake at
+last. "Oh, nurse, are we really going?"
+
+"To be sure we are, Master and a long journey we have before us too,
+while you are lying there and wanting to go to sleep. There is no time
+to be lost. Come, jump up, and dress as fast as you can. Why, Miss Lucy
+is twice as quick as you."
+
+This made Willie jump out of bed, and set to work in good earnest. With
+nurse's help, he was very soon dressed, and then he knelt down to say
+his morning prayer, asking God to forgive his sins, to make him one of
+Jesus Christ's little lambs, and to bless his dear papa and mamma and
+little sister. Willie had been taught to say his prayers slowly and
+gravely, and to think all the time of what he was saying. He knew that
+if he looked about the room, and thought of other things, he could not
+hope that God would hear him.
+
+This morning his mind was so full of the journey that he found it very
+hard to attend to what he was saying, but he kept his eyes shut, and
+tried not to let such thoughts come into his head. Then he stood up,
+and said his pretty morning hymn, and nurse read to him a few easy
+verses in the Bible, and then Willie gave her a kiss, and ran out of
+the room.
+
+Such a bustle the house was in! Boxes were standing, packed and corded,
+in the hall, and there was papa at a side table, very busy over a great
+basket, which he was filling with buns, and biscuits, and cold chicken,
+all to be eaten on the way.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Little Lucy, Willie's sister, who was only five years old, stood
+looking on very gravely. She was a year younger than Willie, and Willie
+always felt as if he were a great deal older than she was.
+
+"Lucy, isn't it nice?" he said to her. "Don't you think the journey
+will be fun? I do."
+
+"No, I don't like it," said Lucy, shaking her head. "Nurse says there
+will be a great noise."
+
+"Oh, but a noise won't hurt you, Lucy. It will be so nice to go
+on—on—faster than you can think. I want so much to see the train. You
+need not be afraid of it, Lucy. I'll take care of you."
+
+"But you are not big enough," said Lucy, with a sigh.
+
+And Mr. Gray stopped for a moment in his work of packing, to look down
+and ask—
+
+"What is the matter, my little girl?"
+
+"She's afraid of the train, papa," said Willie. "But she needn't be.
+I'll take care of her."
+
+"You!" said Mr. Gray, with a little smile.
+
+"I'm six years old, papa," said Willie, holding up his head, and
+wishing very much that he were taller.
+
+Mr. Gray had a bag of biscuits in his hand, which he was just going to
+stow away in the basket. But he put it down for a minute, and patted
+Willie's head.
+
+"I have no doubt you will do the best you can, my boy. But if papa and
+mamma and Lucy had no one to take care of them except their little
+Willie, I don't think they could feel very happy at going such a long
+journey."
+
+"'You' can take care of yourself, papa," said Willie, rather surprised,
+and Lucy said the same.
+
+"No, Lucy, papa can't take care of himself," said Mr. Gray, looking
+down gravely at the two little faces. "Papa is much bigger and stronger
+than either Willie or Lucy, but still he is not big enough or strong
+enough to take care of himself. Willie can tell me who can take care of
+us all."
+
+"God can, papa," said Willie softly.
+
+"Yes, Willie, and we must ask God to watch over us on our journey, and
+all the time we are away from home."
+
+"And when we come back too," said Willie gravely.
+
+"Quite right, Willie. We should never be happy to pass a single day,
+without feeling that we have prayed God to guard us and watch over us,
+for Jesus Christ's sake. And my little Lucy need have no fears about
+the journey. Willie might wish to take care of her, and might not be
+able, but God is able and willing too."
+
+Willie and Lucy stood looking on in silence for a few minutes, while
+Mr. Gray began again to pack the basket. Presently he shut down the
+lid, and tied it tight with a piece of string.
+
+"Now, Willie, will you run and see if mamma is in the parlour, and tell
+her I am ready for breakfast as soon as she can give it to us."
+
+Willie ran off, and found his mamma waiting, so he came back to tell
+his papa. Then he went again to the parlour, and rang the bell for
+family prayers, and put out the large Bible. After prayers, they all
+had breakfast, and a little later started in a fly for the station.
+
+                       ————————————
+
+
+CHAPTER II. 
+
+THE JOURNEY.
+
+MR. and Mrs. Gray, with Willie, Lucy, and nurse, stood on the platform
+at the station, waiting for the train to come up. Lucy clung tight to
+nurse's hand, almost wishing herself at home again, and too much afraid
+of all the noise and bustle to feel very happy. Willie tried to cheer
+her up, but she only hid her face in nurse's dress, and then Willie
+grew a little cross, and told her she was "very silly."
+
+"Hush, hush, Willie," said Mrs. Gray gently. "Lucy is not silly, but
+she is a very little girl, and does not know any better. Another time
+she will not mind the train, but now it is all new to her, and it
+frightens her."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"It doesn't frighten me, mamma."
+
+"No, because you are older than Lucy, and you are a boy too. Boys never
+ought to be cowards, and I hope some day Lucy will not be one either.
+See here comes the train."
+
+Brave as Willie thought himself, he could not help stepping close up to
+his mother's side, when there was a shrill whistle, and the great train
+rushed up, with its snorting puffing engine, going slower and slower
+till it quite stopped.
+
+Mr. Gray took Lucy in his arms, and Mrs. Gray gave Willie her hand, and
+in another minute they were all seated safely in the train. They hardly
+had to wait at all, before there was another whistle and they moved
+off, gently at first but more quickly every moment.
+
+Willie looked out of the window for some time, and could hardly help
+laughing to see all the fields and houses and trees looking just as
+if they were running away. After a while, he grew rather tired of the
+window, and began glancing about the inside of the carriage where they
+were—at the seats, the lamp, the old gentleman in the corner, and the
+two ladies near him. He was rather puzzled to think what the lamp could
+be for, and was just going to ask his mamma, when there was a loud
+sharp whistle, a rushing noise, and they were in perfect darkness,
+except for the glimmer of light from the roof.
+
+Willie was half afraid, but he felt his mother's hand on his shoulder,
+and he could see a smile on her face, though the noise was too great to
+allow of talking. Mr. Gray leaned forward, and said very loud,—
+
+"This is a 'tunnel.'"
+
+And Willie made up his mind to ask by-and-bye what it all meant.
+
+When they came out again into daylight, poor little Lucy was crying
+in nurse's arms, so Mrs. Gray took her on her lap, and gave her a
+biscuit. Then Willie had a game of bo-peep with her, but at this, the
+old gentleman in the corner looked very cross, and said something
+about "noisy tiresome children!" to the lady by his side. Mrs. Gray
+told Willie not to laugh quite so loud, and Willie did as he was told,
+but he thought the old gentleman as tiresome as the old gentleman had
+thought him.
+
+"I'll ask mamma why he should mind my laughing," he thought. "That's
+'two' things I want to know."
+
+By-and-bye they stopped at a station, and Willie thought this a good
+time to ask the first of his questions.
+
+"Papa," he said, "what is a tunnel?"
+
+"Did you ever see a hill, Willie?" asked Mr. Gray.
+
+"Oh, yes, papa—numbers of hills."
+
+"Not so very many, my boy. Still you know what a hill is. Now suppose
+I wanted to make a railroad from my house to Mr. Brown's, how should I
+manage when I came to Heath Hill?"
+
+"Make the train go round, papa," said Willie.
+
+"But that would take it so far out of the way. Think of some other
+plan."
+
+"Couldn't the train go over the hill?" asked Willie.
+
+"No, uphill will not do. The path must be nearly if not quite
+level—that is, flat—for the train. Heath Hill is very steep."
+
+"Is a tunnel made under the ground, then?" asked Willie slowly.
+
+"That is right, Willie. You have found it out now. I should make a
+tunnel under the hill for the train to go through. Do you not call that
+a good plan?"
+
+"I do not know. It makes such a noise, papa," said Willie, rather
+gravely.
+
+"Who was it that I heard this morning, saying, 'Oh, a noise won't hurt
+you, Lucy'? You are not so brave now as then, Willie."
+
+"Yes, papa—I'm not afraid," said Willie, sitting up straight. "I won't
+mind the tunnel next time at all. I did not this time so much as Lucy."
+
+"Lucy is too young to know any better yet. But you are old enough to
+learn what a tunnel is, and not to be timid about it."
+
+"Are people never hurt in a tunnel?" asked Willie.
+
+"Sometimes they are. And sometimes people are hurt when they are
+driving, and sometimes when they are walking, and sometimes when they
+are sitting quite quiet in the house. No one can be hurt anywhere,
+unless it is the will of God; and if it is, then we shall be hurt
+wherever we are."
+
+"Then no one ought to be afraid," said Willie.
+
+"No one, Willie, who can feel that God is his Father and will take care
+of him."
+
+The train was now moving on again, but the cross gentleman and the two
+ladies were gone, so Mr. and Mrs. Gray, and Willie, and Lucy, and nurse
+were alone.
+
+Willie could not help saying, "I am glad he has gone, mamma. He didn't
+like to see me playing."
+
+"He did not like to hear my little boy's noisy laugh," said Mrs. Gray,
+with a smile.
+
+"But, mamma, I wasn't near him."
+
+"Near enough to disturb him in his reading, I suppose. Always try,
+Willie, not to disturb grown-up people by talking and laughing too loud
+when they are busy. If you do, they will be sorry to see you come, and
+glad to see you go. You would not like that?"
+
+"No, I should like them to be glad to see me, mamma."
+
+"So they will be, Willie, if you are a gentle polite boy, and think
+more of what other people like than of what you like yourself. Noisy,
+rude, tiresome children are always in the way."
+
+"But you don't mind my laughing, mamma?"
+
+"Not unless I am busy, then I like to be quiet. Perhaps the old
+gentleman in the corner was busy. At any rate, you should always be
+quiet when you are asked, Willie. Don't forget that, dear."
+
+"I'll try not, mamma," said Willie, rather gravely.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE SEA.
+
+"HERE we are, Willie! Now for the sea! How fresh and salt the air
+feels!"
+
+"Lucy is asleep, papa," said Willie, rubbing his own eyes, and trying
+to look very wide awake.
+
+"Some one else has been asleep, too, I think," said Mr. Gray, smiling.
+"Never mind; you will feel lively enough after a good night's rest. It
+has been a long journey, and you will be glad of your tea, and your
+bed."
+
+They were now stopping at the station. Mr. Gray stepped out, and lifted
+Willie and Lucy upon the platform. Then he made a porter bring their
+boxes into the road, and put them on a fly, while they all got inside.
+
+"Now, Willie, look out," said Mr. Gray, as they drove off.
+
+And Willie did look out. He had never yet seen the sea, and he could
+not at all fancy what it was like. By-and-bye he saw a gleam of blue
+between some houses, and clapped his hands.
+
+"Oh, papa! Was that the sea?"
+
+"That was the sea, Willie. There it is again. You did not look in
+time, did you? But we shall drive along the parade in front of it in a
+minute, and then you will see it plainly. Here we come! Now look out!"
+
+Willie looked again, and at last said with a little sigh:
+
+"It's very pretty and blue, papa, and very big. I think if it wasn't so
+big, it would look like our pond at home."
+
+"You will not think so, Willie, when you have seen it with great waves
+dashing about, and the spray flying in the wind. It is very still
+to-day. But you will soon change your mind about its being only like a
+pond."
+
+"Shall I find any shells on the shore?" asked Willie.
+
+"I hope so. Shells are almost always seen on sandy shores. You must
+dig holes in the sand too, and make hills and towers and all kinds of
+things."
+
+"But I don't know what to dig with, papa."
+
+"We will soon manage about that," said Mr. Gray, with a smile. "Do you
+think we could find a spade in the shops for those little fingers?"
+
+"A spade! Oh, thank you, papa. Like what Rogers uses?"
+
+"Not 'quite' so large as that, and it must be of wood. Lucy shall have
+one too."
+
+"A small one," said Willie, looking down at Lucy's tiny hands.
+
+"Yes—smaller than yours. Nurse will take you out on the shore, and sit
+and work while you dig, and I hope you will be very happy. Now we must
+get out. This is to be our home while we are at the sea-side."
+
+Willie looked up at the house. It was not facing the sea, but was
+some little way up a side street. There was a small garden in front,
+up which Willie ran the moment he was out of the fly. Then he waited
+for his mamma, and she took his hand, and led him upstairs to the
+sitting-room, where the tea-things were laid out. Hats and bonnets were
+taken off, and sleepy little Lucy woke quite up over her milk and bread
+and butter. Willie thought he had never been so hungry in his life, and
+it was a long time before he had done his tea.
+
+Then Lucy was taken off to bed, that she might be quite rested and
+fresh in the morning. Willie begged hard to go on the shore, and Mr.
+Gray said he would take him for a little while. So Willie fetched his
+cap, and they went out, down the street, across the parade, and then
+over the soft crisp sand.
+
+Willie ran and jumped about, and hunted for shells, and almost shouted
+aloud with glee. The tide was now coming in, and the water was less
+smooth than before. Bright dancing waves rolled up, and broke on the
+beach, and Willie stood close at the water's edge, jumping back just in
+time to escape a wetting. Once or twice he was very nearly caught.
+
+There were not many shells to be seen, but he found a few, and put them
+into his pocket to give to Lucy. Like a kind little boy, he thought
+that as he had had the pleasure of the first walk, Lucy should have the
+pleasure of the first shells.
+
+"Well, Willie, it is time to think of going home now," said Mr. Gray,
+at last, and Willie came up at once. "What do you think of the sea now?
+Is it no better than a pond?"
+
+"Oh, papa, a great great deal. It isn't a bit like a pond now. I never
+saw such waves!"
+
+"These are very small waves, Willie. Perhaps some day before we leave,
+you may see some really large ones. Now we must go home, for it is time
+that little boys should be in bed after such a long journey. In the
+morning, I hope you will have a nice game on the shore."
+
+Willie gave a wistful look up into his father's face, and Mr. Gray saw
+what he was thinking of.
+
+"You will want the spades, will you not? We must see what we can do.
+Now take one more look at the sea, and then we must leave the beach."
+
+Willie did so, and turned away with a sigh of delight, as he said:
+
+"Papa, I think the sea is the best thing in all the world!"
+
+"Wait till you have seen all the world, my boy, before you decide. But
+I quite agree with you in thinking it a most grand and lovely sight. I
+have never yet seen anything that I could enjoy more."
+
+"And only think, papa—a month or six weeks here," said Willie, as they
+walked over the parade. "Such a nice long time! I do hope it will be
+fine."
+
+"Very likely it will much of the time. Sometimes of course we must
+expect rain, and then I hope you will bear it with good-temper, and
+amuse yourself indoors as well as you can. Here we are at the house.
+Now good-night, and run upstairs to nurse."
+
+Willie did so, and was soon ready for bed. Lucy was asleep, so he kept
+the shells to give her in the morning, and in a little while he too was
+asleep and dreaming of the sea.
+
+                       ————————————
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+SPADES AND SAND.
+
+NEXT morning Willie gave Lucy the shells he had found, and she was very
+much pleased with them indeed. She jumped out of her bed, and gave him
+a kiss, and thanked him over and over again, saying—
+
+"How kind of you, Willie! But don't you want them?"
+
+"No, I would rather you should have them, Lucy. And we will try to find
+some more to-day."
+
+Breakfast time soon came, and when the meal was over, nurse told Willie
+to get his cap, and then to keep quiet while she dressed Lucy, for they
+were going out on the shore. Willie found it very hard to stand still,
+while he was so happy; but he knew that if he jumped about, Lucy would
+want to do the same, so he only walked to the window and stood there,
+swinging his cap, and begging nurse to "make great haste."
+
+At last they left the house, and Lucy held nurse's hand tight, and
+looked shy and timid as she always did in new places; but Willie wanted
+to scamper about, and did not like being called back by nurse.
+
+"I am sure I shan't lose myself, nurse," he said, "and I won't get into
+mischief. Let me run along the parade, or down on the sands. Are we not
+going on the shore?"
+
+"In a few minutes," nurse replied. "And don't run so far away again,
+Master Willie, or I shall be losing sight of you."
+
+"But if you did, I could find my way home," said Willie, feeling a
+little bit inclined to be cross at not being allowed to run as far as
+he liked.
+
+"But what do you think your mamma would say if I went home without
+you?" asked nurse. "No, no, Master Willie, you must be a good boy, and
+do as you are told, or I shall have to hold your hand and make you
+walk by my side. Here we are at the shop. Do you think you can help me
+choose two nice spades?"
+
+Willie looked up with a smile, and clapped his hands.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"O nurse! How kind! Are we going to have them now? Did papa say so?"
+
+"Yes, and here is the money," said nurse.
+
+Then she told the shopwoman to show them some wooden spades, and very
+soon two were chosen and paid for,—a small one for Lucy, and a rather
+larger one for Willie.
+
+How grand Willie felt as they walked towards the beach, and he swung
+his spade about! Nurse told him to carry it gently, but he forgot once
+or twice, and at length nearly knocked a little boy with it. Then
+nurse almost took it away from him, but Willie begged her to try him
+once more, and said he would be very careful, so she gave him one more
+trial. This time he did not forget, and as he did not swing it again,
+nurse let him carry it all the way.
+
+When they reached the beach, she sat down on the sands, and took out
+her work. Willie and Lucy began digging holes near her, and trying
+which could dig the deepest. Of course Willie was the strongest, and
+made the largest hole, so he came and helped Lucy to make hers bigger.
+
+"May we go down close to the water, nurse?" asked Willie after a time.
+
+"If you will not get into any mischief," said nurse. "And Miss Lucy
+too? Well, you must take great care of her, and both of you must come
+back to me in a moment if I call you. I can't sit down there, for the
+sand is too flat and not dry enough, and I must get on with my work,
+for your mamma wants it done. But you may go if you like, only be very
+steady and careful."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Willie took Lucy's hand, and they ran down the beach, till they were
+close to the rippling waves, which rolled up and broke upon the wet
+sparkling sand. Willie began digging again, and was pleased to see
+his hole fill with water. Lucy tried to help him, but she could not
+manage her spade very well, and sometimes she knocked the sand into the
+hole, instead of taking it out. Willie bore it once or twice without a
+word, and then he asked her to take more care. Lucy tried, but again
+her spade slipped, and down went a lump of wet sand into Willie's nice
+large hole. Willie began to grow angry.
+
+"Lucy, you tiresome girl!" he cried. "I won't dig with you at all, if
+you spoil my holes like that. Look what you have done!" And he stamped
+his foot on the ground. "How can you be so stupid?"
+
+Poor little Lucy's eyes filled with tears, and her cheeks flushed, as
+she dropped the spade and stepped back. Willie did not mean to frighten
+her; but he still felt too vexed to say he was sorry for his unkind
+words, so he only turned his back to her, and began throwing stones
+into the sea.
+
+"Willie, I didn't mean to do it," said Lucy at last, in her soft timid
+voice.
+
+"You should take care," said Willie, turning round to her again. "You
+spoil my holes when you knock the sand about like that."
+
+"I won't do it again," said Lucy in a trembling voice, and with a
+little sob. "Please don't be angry, Willie."
+
+How could Willie be angry any longer before that gentle little face. He
+walked up to her, and gave her a kiss.
+
+"There! You're a dear little thing, and I'm a cross boy, Lucy. I won't
+scold you any more now. You shall dig as much as you like, only don't
+throw sand into this one great hole, because I want it to be very big."
+
+"I can't dig," said Lucy sadly. "I don't know how, Willie. I'll look at
+you."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what, Lucy; we won't dig any more holes, but we'll
+make a great high hill of sand, and then I'll stand on it while the
+water comes up all round me. Won't that be nice?"
+
+Lucy looked bright again, and in a minute they were hard at work,
+piling up the sand and throwing on fresh spades-full, till it really
+was a very large heap to have been made by such little people. Nurse
+came down to see what they were about, and she was glad to find them so
+happy. But Lucy was growing tired and hot, so she took her back with
+her to sit quiet. Willie told nurse what he was making his hill for,
+but she shook her head.
+
+"No, that won't do, Master Willie. I shall have you tumbling into the
+water."
+
+"But indeed, nurse, I can 'quite' well jump to shore again, when the
+water is all round it," said Willie.
+
+"No, I can't have you do it, Master Willie. The water is coming in so
+fast that it would be round you before you knew what you were about;
+and suppose you should jump into the water instead of on dry land!"
+
+Nurse went away as she spoke, taking Lucy with her. Willie stood in no
+happy mood, gazing at the hill which had cost him so much trouble, and
+feeling not a little cross.
+
+"It's too bad," he said to himself. "Nurse treats me as if I were a
+little baby, and she forgets how old I am. It would be so nice to stand
+on the top, and see the water come all round me. I wish mamma were out
+here. I am sure she would let me do it."
+
+What a silly little boy Willie was, to make himself so cross about what
+he could not do, instead of being happy about what he could do. He
+stood and looked at the hill, watching the water creeping higher, and
+the little waves breaking against it; and every moment the longing grew
+stronger to stand if but for one moment on the top.
+
+"It couldn't do any harm," he said again. Oh, Willie! "No harm" when
+nurse told you not to do it!
+
+"I could easily jump there and back," he thought, "and I wouldn't stay
+there. It looks just like a little island when the water runs up all
+round it like that. Nurse thinks I can't do anything. I have a great
+mind just to try. Nurse isn't looking, nor Lucy either."
+
+All this passed through Willie's mind a great deal faster than it can
+be written down. What a pity it was that Willie should allow himself to
+look on so long, and to wish so much for what he knew he ought not to
+do. He did not think of asking help from God, who is always willing to
+give it; and little Willie had no strength in himself to conquer the
+naughty wishes that were tempting him to do wrong.
+
+He looked again to see if nurse saw him, but she was busy with her
+work, and Lucy's back was turned. Willie still paused a moment, and
+then the desire became too strong to be overcome.
+
+He gave a leap and reached the top of the little mound, meaning to jump
+back in a moment. But it had been thrown up very loosely, and the waves
+had even now soaked in beneath, and washed away part of the sides, and
+the soft wet sand gave way in an instant under Willie's feet.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Down he went, and splash!—He fell on his face into the middle of the
+next wave that came dancing up.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WILLIE IN BED.
+
+WHAT a shriek Willie gave! Poor nurse was startled, indeed, to hear
+it, and still more to see Willie going down with such a splash into
+the water. She jumped up, and ran down the beach as fast as she could,
+while poor Lucy came crying after her. By the time they reached the
+water's edge, Willie had managed to struggle to his hands and feet, and
+to scramble back to shore.
+
+Very wretched he looked, dripping with water from head to foot, and
+with tears of mingled alarm at his fall, and fear of nurse's anger,
+running down his cheeks.
+
+"Oh, Master Willie!" was all nurse said. "I thought I could trust you
+to do as you were told. You must come home now as fast as you can, and
+take off your wet things. I don't know what your mamma will say."
+
+Willie began to sob; but nurse hurried him up the beach and towards the
+house, while the water ran from his clothes, making little puddles on
+the parade and the road; and people turned in great surprise to look at
+the wet tearful little boy, and to wonder what was the matter.
+
+Mrs. Gray was not in the house, rather to Willie's relief, for he
+dreaded her hearing all that had passed.
+
+Nurse took him upstairs, and after pulling off his soaking clothes made
+him get into bed. Willie did not like this at all, and begged hard that
+he might sit up, but nurse would not allow it.
+
+"No, Master Willie," she said. "If it was not your own fault, I would
+let you put on your best things; but now it is all through your being
+so naughty as to do what I said you must not, you must lie in bed till
+your things are dry. Now, Master Willie, if you cry and make a noise, I
+shall have to punish you by keeping you there longer still," she added.
+"You should be a wise boy, and show you are sorry for being so naughty,
+by being now as good and quiet as you can."
+
+"It's so hard to lie in bed," sobbed Willie. "I don't like it at all,
+nurse. It is so unkind of you."
+
+"I don't wish to seem unkind, Master Willie," said nurse gravely. "But
+when you don't obey me, I must punish you for it. You know very well
+that your mamma will say I am quite right. It would be no real kindness
+to pass it over, and treat you as if you had been a good little boy."
+
+But Willie felt cross and angry with himself, and therefore with every
+one else besides. He rolled about in the bed, and sobbed aloud, until
+nurse left the room, hoping he would be more quiet alone.
+
+When there was no one to hear him, Willie did not care to go on crying,
+and he quite left off, until there was a step outside the door, and
+Mrs. Gray came in. Then the tears began to fall again.
+
+"Willie! Willie! I am sorry to hear this of you," she said, sitting
+down on the bed, and speaking sadly. "I did hope my little boy could at
+least be trusted to do what he was told."
+
+"It is so unkind of nurse to put me to bed," sobbed Willie.
+
+"No, Willie, not unkind. Nurse is never unkind. She was quite right to
+punish you for such conduct."
+
+"I didn't mean any harm, mamma. I thought the sand was quite strong."
+
+"Willie," said Mrs. Gray, "what had nurse told you only five minutes
+before?"
+
+Willie twisted his face away, and almost hid it in the pillow.
+
+"Nurse thinks I can't do anything, mamma. I'm not a little baby now!"
+
+"No, but I am afraid you are likely to become something much worse,
+Willie, if this is the way you mean to behave," said Mrs. Gray, so
+sadly, that Willie could not help looking at her.
+
+Were those tears in her eyes? Willie could not quite bear that, and he
+jumped up and put his arm round his mother's neck.
+
+"Mamma, I didn't mean to make you sorry. I'll try not to do it again."
+
+"Indeed, Willie, I hope it is the last time I shall hear of such a
+thing. You have grieved me very much this morning."
+
+"I am sorry, mamma," said Willie.
+
+"If you are really sorry, Willie dear, you know that I am quite ready
+to forgive you. But there is One whose pardon you ought to ask even
+before mine."
+
+Willie hung his head.
+
+"I know, mamma," he said, in a low voice.
+
+"And will you do it, Willie?" asked Mrs. Gray gently. "May I hope that
+my little boy will indeed ask God to forgive him for Jesus Christ's
+sake, and to keep him from such naughty conduct in the future."
+
+"I'll try, mamma," said Willie softly.
+
+Mrs. Gray kissed him, and then went on:—
+
+"Now, Willie, I want to ask you one or two questions. Did you really
+think this morning that you—a little boy of six—could judge better than
+nurse of what you ought or ought not to do?"
+
+Willie's face grew red, and he hung his head again.
+
+"I don't know, mamma. I thought I was big enough to take care of
+myself. Nurse always fancies that I can't do things."
+
+"You see now, Willie, that nurse knew better than you did. If you had
+done as she told you, you might have been playing out on the sands all
+this time, instead of lying here in bed."
+
+"Yes, mamma," was all Willie could say, for he felt very tearful at the
+thought of the bright sunny shore and sparkling waves.
+
+"I daresay, Willie, that you thought it a rather grand thing to do what
+you were told not to do. You felt very big and old,—did you not?—almost
+too old to obey nurse."
+
+Willie blushed scarlet, for Mrs. Gray had just guessed his thoughts.
+
+"Well, Willie, I do not think you ever made a greater mistake in your
+life. You will find when you grow older that the best and greatest and
+wisest men in the world are almost always those who are the most ready
+to 'obey' when it is right."
+
+"Shall I, mamma?" asked Willie.
+
+"Indeed you will, dear. And, Willie, when the Lord Jesus Christ was
+a little child, he did not think himself too wise or too old to obey
+his mother and Joseph. And yet they were only a poor carpenter and his
+wife, and knew very little, while he was the Son of God, and knew more
+than any one in the whole world. Can you tell me a verse which I showed
+you last Sunday, proving that he did obey them?"
+
+Willie thought a minute, and then said:
+
+"Wasn't it after he had been in the temple, mamma, and the Bible says,
+'He was subject to them?'"
+
+"Quite right, Willie. I am glad you do not forget. You can tell me what
+'subject to them' means?"
+
+"He did what they told him," said Willie.
+
+"Yes, Willie. And yet, though only a child of twelve years old, he
+could answer and perplex all the grave learned doctors, and amaze them
+with his wisdom. If ever a child might have thought himself too old and
+too wise to obey his parents, surely the Lord Jesus might have done so."
+
+"He was 'so' good," said Willie, slowly.
+
+"Yes, Willie, he was so good and holy, too humble and meek for any such
+thing. Willie, will you try and take the Lord Jesus Christ for your
+pattern?—Try and act like him?"
+
+"I don't know how," said Willie gravely.
+
+"Not know how?" said Mrs. Gray gently. "Willie, there is only one way
+in which you can do it, and that is to become one of his little lambs.
+The only way is to go to him, and ask him to wash away all your sins in
+his precious blood, and to give you a new heart, and to make you meek,
+and gentle, and loving, like himself. You are a very little boy, but
+you are not too young to serve the Lord Jesus Christ."
+
+"I don't know how," said Willie again, in a low voice.
+
+"There are many ways, Willie, in which even a little boy like you may
+serve him. By always doing what you are told, and by being kind and
+gentle to all, and by giving up your own will for the sake of others,
+and by striving to honour him in your conduct. If it is all done out of
+love to Jesus, then you are serving him, but not if it comes only from
+the love of praise or the fear of blame."
+
+"I should like to be good, mamma," said Willie.
+
+"So should I like to see you so, Willie. You know that no one in the
+world is ever truly 'good,' or ever has been so, except the Lord Jesus.
+But I cannot tell you how happy it would make me to know that my little
+boy was indeed one of his little lambs. Jesus is so ready to receive
+little children, Willie. He will never cast out one of them that come
+to him. And his promise is that those who seek him early shall find
+him. You can tell me the verse I mean."
+
+"'I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find
+me,'" said Willie.
+
+"Right, dear. Try not to forget that, Willie. I must leave you now, for
+I am wanted in the drawing-room. But I hope that when nurse comes in,
+you will tell her you are sorry for having done what she told you not
+to do."
+
+"I'll tell her, mamma," said Willie rather slowly, and Mrs. Gray kissed
+him.
+
+"I am sure you 'feel' sorry for it now, Willie. If it is a little hard
+to tell nurse so, you must not mind, for it is the right thing to do."
+
+"Mamma, I always do what you and papa tell me," said Willie.
+
+"I hope you do, Willie. What do you mean, dear? What is it you want to
+say?"
+
+"Nurse isn't the same," said Willie, blushing and half afraid.
+
+"Not the same, Willie! Not when papa and I have chosen her to take care
+of you, and trust you with her? Did you not know it was my wish that
+you should obey her? Have I never told you to do so?"
+
+Willie hung his head.
+
+"If you do not obey nurse, it is the same as not obeying me, Willie,"
+said Mrs. Gray. "I hope you will not forget this again."
+
+"I'm sorry," said Willie, raising his face. "I'll tell her so, mamma,
+and I'll try never to do it again."
+
+"With God's help, Willie," said Mrs. Gray gently, and after giving him
+one more kiss she left the room.
+
+Nurse came in soon after, with the now dry clothes in her arms, and
+Willie did not forget his promise. He felt much more happy when nurse
+kissed him, and told him she quite forgave him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A DONKEY RIDE.
+
+"WHO wants a ride on a donkey to-day?" asked Mr. Gray one morning,
+about a week after their journey to the sea-side.
+
+"Oh papa!" "Oh papa!" cried Willie and Lucy at once.
+
+"What, both of you? How are we to find so many donkeys, do you think?"
+
+"Oh papa, may we really have a ride?" asked Willie. "How kind of you!"
+
+"Would you like it better than digging in the sand? Because you know
+you can't dig when you are perched up on the donkey's back," said papa,
+looking very funny.
+
+And Willie and Lucy laughed.
+
+"Oh, we'll leave our spades behind, papa," said Willie. "Won't it be
+nice, Lucy? But will Lucy be able to ride?"
+
+"Yes, we must find her a donkey with a nice high saddle—a saddle with
+sides and a back, so that she cannot well fall off."
+
+Lucy was soon dressed, and she and Willie went down to the beach with
+Mr. Gray.
+
+A great many donkeys stood there, and a great many boys were taking
+care of them. Each seemed very eager for 'his' donkeys to be taken, and
+they called out so loud, and crowded round so close, that Willie was
+half afraid, and Lucy clung closely to papa's hand.
+
+But Mr. Gray soon fixed on two nice clean-looking donkeys, lifted up
+Lucy, helped Willie to mount, and in a minute more they were off.
+
+Lucy looked grave, and held her papa's hand, as he walked by her side,
+but Willie was not a bit afraid. He jogged up and down, trying to make
+his donkey go faster.
+
+"Papa, mayn't I have a real gallop?" he asked. "The donkey won't go
+fast."
+
+"Gallop, my boy! I don't think you would keep your seat long, if you
+tried a gallop. This is the first ride you have ever had, you know."
+
+"Oh, papa, I should keep my seat I am quite sure. I saw a little boy
+just now, hardly bigger than Lucy, and he was going quite fast."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"I daresay he had often been out riding before, Willie."
+
+Willie's face looked rather cloudy, and he said, half to himself—
+
+"I'm sure I shouldn't fall off."
+
+"Willie," said Mr. Gray in a quiet tone, "did you ever hear of a little
+boy who was quite certain he could jump upon a sand mound that he had
+made, when his nurse told him not."
+
+Willie grew rather red.
+
+"Well, papa, I won't say, I'm 'sure,'" he said, after a pause. "But
+won't you let me go a little faster, and I'll try not to fall off."
+
+"That is right, Willie," said Mr. Gray, with a smile. "I like to see
+a little boy who can allow that he has been in the wrong or made a
+mistake. Yes, you may go faster if you like, but hold on tight."
+
+A stroke from the donkey-boy's stick made the donkey start off at a
+trot. Willie soon felt that he was not quite so sure of his seat as
+he had fancied, and he was glad he had not tried to gallop. Soon the
+donkey went more slowly again, and then Mr. Gray and Lucy came up.
+Willie asked his papa where they were going.
+
+"Do you see those rocks, Willie, on the shore-low dark rocks, down to
+the water's edge?"
+
+"I see, papa. Are they pretty rocks?"
+
+"Not very. That dark colour is from the sea-weeds which grow over them.
+But I want to find some 'sea-anemones' to show you."
+
+"An-em-o-nes," said Willie slowly. "I don't know what they are, papa.
+Are they alive, and do they live on the rocks?"
+
+"Both. They are living creatures, and they fasten themselves to
+rocks, where they stay and catch food with what you would call their
+'feelers.'"
+
+"Like the feelers of a butterfly?" asked Willie.
+
+"No, the feelers of a sea-anemone are soft and fleshy, and there are a
+great many of them. Sometimes they are of lovely colours, and when they
+are opened out, the anemone looks like a bright flower in the water."
+
+"Oh, how pretty, papa! I hope we shall see one."
+
+"I am afraid we shall not find any here with very bright colours,
+Willie, and now the tide is low, they will very likely be all shut up.
+But we will do our best."
+
+Soon the rocks were reached, and Mr. Gray lifted Lucy and Willie to
+the ground. Mr. Gray held Lucy's hand, and led her on the rocks, while
+he told Willie to take care that he did not slip on the wet slimy
+sea-weeds. He soon found a small anemone, and called Willie to see it,
+but it was shut up, and Willie thought it very ugly.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then Willie found a crab, and he took hold of it, but it pinched his
+fingers, and he let it fall, with a cry.
+
+"What is the matter, Willie?" asked Mr. Gray.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Only a nasty crab, papa," said Willie, squeezing his finger. "He gave
+me a pinch when I took him up."
+
+"Ah, you must take care how you handle crabs. See, here is a fine large
+one. Look how he runs."
+
+"He goes sideways," said Willie. "I've seen the little wee crabs do
+that on the sand. I'm glad I didn't take up that one. He is so big that
+he would have pinched me very hard. Oh, papa, what is this? May I take
+it up, or will it hurt me? Is it alive?"
+
+"Yes, but it will not hurt you. It is called a star-fish."
+
+Willie and Lucy both felt the rough pink skin, which was as hard and
+stiff as leather, and Willie asked how it could walk, with "five legs
+sticking out all round."
+
+"Those are not legs," said Mr. Gray. "They are called rays. The legs,
+or rather the feet, are on the rays, and are very small indeed."
+
+"What a funny thing it is," said Willie.
+
+"There are many strange creatures found in the sea, Willie. God has
+made as many wonderful things in the sea as on land. Do you know there
+is one kind of star-fish, which, when you touch it, seems to go into a
+passion and throws off its rays."
+
+Willie and Lucy both laughed at the idea of the little star-fish
+throwing off his rays, and Willie said—
+
+"It would be very funny, I think, if Lucy and I were to throw off our
+arms and legs when we are angry."
+
+"Worse than funny, Willie, for it would be very wrong if such a thing
+could be," said Mr. Gray. "It is always wrong for little boys and girls
+to be angry. But the star-fish does not know any better, and cannot
+learn. Now look into this pool, and tell me what you can see."
+
+"Fish, papa—oh! What dear little fishes!" cried Willie. "And what are
+those?—Are they fish too?"
+
+"No, they are prawns," said Mr. Gray. "Did you never hear of prawns?"
+
+"Oh yes, I've seen them in the shops," said Willie, "and they are like
+big shrimps. But I thought they were red."
+
+"When they are cooked," said Mr. Gray, laughing. "And so are crabs and
+lobsters. But you don't find them ready cooked on the sea-shore."
+
+Willie grew as red as the boiled prawns, at his own mistake.
+
+"Never mind, Willie," said his papa kindly. "A little boy who has never
+been to the sea before, cannot of course know such things. You will be
+wiser now. I think it is time to return to the donkeys, and to go home.
+Perhaps some day we will come here again, and stay longer."
+
+"I am glad we have been," said Willie. "I shan't forget what we have
+seen. Some crabs, and some prawns, and some fishes, and a star-fish,
+and a sea-anemone."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A RAINY DAY.
+
+"OH, mamma, a rainy day! I'm so sorry," sighed Willie.
+
+"Well, Willie, I don't think we must complain. One day of rain after
+nearly a month of fine weather, is not so very bad."
+
+"But we are going home in a few days, and perhaps it will rain all the
+time," said Willie in a very dismal voice.
+
+"Not at all likely, Willie. I daresay it will be quite fine again in a
+day or two. It may even clear up this evening. Come, don't waste time
+in gazing out of the window. That will do you no good."
+
+"I have nothing to do, mamma."
+
+"Nothing to do! Where is that nice book papa gave you?"
+
+"I have read it all through, mamma."
+
+"Suppose you draw me a picture then. Here is a pencil, and a piece of
+paper."
+
+Willie slowly sat down, and made a few listless strokes, then threw the
+pencil on the table, with a yawn.
+
+"I don't know what to draw, mamma. I wish it would stop raining."
+
+"Wishing won't do much good. Draw a picture of a little boy riding
+along on a donkey, or digging in the sand, or bathing in the sea."
+
+"Oh, I can't, mamma. I don't know how to draw."
+
+"Come, Willie, don't be pettish. I shall begin to think you have had
+too much fun and play, and want to go home again."
+
+"I don't want to go home, mamma," said Willie, looking very downcast.
+"I should like to stay at the sea-side."
+
+"Indeed, Willie, I should be sorry for you to do so much longer, if you
+cannot bear a single wet day here with good-temper. At home you can be
+happy enough when it rains."
+
+"My toys and books are all there, mamma."
+
+"Poor little boy! Well, suppose you come and hold this skein of wool
+for me while I wind it. That will be useful, at all events."
+
+Willie did as he was asked, but he did not look any brighter. For a
+minute or two Mrs. Gray wound in silence, and then she asked in a
+cheerful tone—
+
+"What has Lucy been doing all the morning?"
+
+"Playing, mamma."
+
+"Don't you think she would have been much more happy, Willie, if she
+had spent her time in gazing out of the window, longing for the rain to
+stop?"
+
+"She doesn't mind staying in doors so much as I do," said Willie,
+hanging his head, and looking very much as if he wanted to cry.
+
+"Because, I suppose, she has been too busy to think about it. What a
+pity you have not been the same. Take care; you are letting my skein
+slip off your hand. Now you must hold it quite tight while I undo this
+knot. That is right. What do you think papa said to me this morning?"
+
+"I don't know, mamma."
+
+"He was so glad to see the rain come at last."
+
+Willie looked as if he thought such a remark very strange, to say the
+least. Glad to see the rain!
+
+"You don't know why, do you? Rain is very much wanted just now in
+England. There has been so little that the grass is getting parched and
+dry, and if we were without it much longer, the harvest this year would
+be a very bad one."
+
+"I don't like the rain," said Willie, in a low tone.
+
+"Not for its own sake, perhaps; but for the sake of the poor, you ought
+to be glad to see it, Willie. It seems very hard to you to be kept in
+for one day, when you want to go out. But how do you think you would
+feel, if you were a poor little ragged boy, and knew that unless the
+rain fell, the corn would not grow, and bread would be so dear all the
+winter that you must expect to be often half-starved."
+
+"I shouldn't like it," said Willie. "Are little boys often
+half-starved?"
+
+"Very often, when their fathers and mothers have not enough money to
+buy all the food they want. And the more the bread costs, the less they
+can buy."
+
+"Does it cost more when there isn't much rain?" asked Willie.
+
+"Of course it does, Willie. You know that corn, like grass and plants,
+cannot grow without water, and if it has not enough, it is poor and
+stunted, and gives only a small supply of flour to make bread. Then
+there is less bread than usual, and people have to pay more for it. We
+have not had rain now for a long time, and only a day or two ago we
+heard that some farmers were very anxious about their corn. They were
+afraid that a great deal of it would be quite spoiled."
+
+"Do they want much rain, mamma?" asked Willie, in a very sober tone.
+
+"Not a very great deal, I daresay. But this nice steady down-pour is
+just what they wish for. There is one more reason why I never like to
+see little boys or girls pettish and cross about the weather. You know
+who sends the rain, or makes it fine, Willie?"
+
+"Yes, mamma," said Willie.
+
+"God sends it, Willie, and therefore it must be right, and the best
+weather we could have. Even when we cannot see that it is so, we ought
+to believe it."
+
+Willie gave a sigh.
+
+"I won't be cross any more, mamma. I'll draw a picture when the skein
+is done, and then I'll go and have a game with Lucy. She asked me to
+play, and I wouldn't."
+
+"That is right, Willie. I am glad to see a bright face again. For your
+sake I hope the rain will not go on long,—not longer than is needed to
+make the corn grow."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ROUGH WEATHER.
+
+IT rained all that day, and nearly all the next. Towards evening it
+stopped, but the wind was blowing hard, and Willie could catch a
+glimpse of the sea from his window, looking dark and rough, instead of
+blue and calm. He longed very much to go down on the shore, but so long
+as the rain lasted Mrs. Gray said he must stay indoors.
+
+When it stopped, his papa said to him—
+
+"Now, Willie, we will go out for half-an-hour. Ask nurse to wrap you up
+well, and we will have a little ramble."
+
+Willie ran away in great glee, and soon came back quite ready. Lucy
+wanted to go too, but the wind was too strong and the ground too wet
+for her, so Willie went alone with his papa.
+
+As they walked down the street and across the parade, Willie could hear
+the noise of the sea growing louder and louder. And when at last they
+stood on the shore, he held his father's hand, almost afraid of the
+sight before him. The wind blew hard and whistled in his ears, and the
+great waves rolled up and dashed down upon the shore, with such a noise
+that he could hardly hear his father's voice. He thought at first that
+it was raining hard, and asked if he should put up his umbrella, but
+Mr. Gray shook his head, and said—"No, it is only the spray."
+
+Then Willie saw that it was nothing but the spray, blown by the wind
+from the breaking waves. A great many sea-weeds lay on the beach, and
+Willie found one very long piece of ribbon-sea-weed, which trailed on
+the ground, even when he held it up as high as he could in the air.
+
+"May I take it home, and show it to Lucy, papa?" he asked.
+
+"If you like," said Mr. Gray. "I daresay Lucy will like to see it.
+There comes a great wave, Willie!"
+
+"It is such a nice noise," said Willie, jumping up and down. "Oh, look
+at that wave! I do wonder the sea doesn't wash away all the sand."
+
+"I am not surprised at your wonder, Willie. But it is God's will that
+the weak soft sand should keep back the strong fierce sea. When we
+get home, if you will remind me, I will show you in the thirty-fourth
+chapter of Job, how God says that He has set bars and doors to the sea,
+and has said, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall
+thy proud waves be stayed.' But for that we might indeed expect to see
+the sand very soon washed away. You see it is the door that God has set
+to keep the sea in its place."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Willie and his papa stayed a little while longer, and then went home.
+Willie then gave Lucy the long piece of sea-weed, much to her delight.
+
+"What a great long one it is," said Lucy, holding it up. "It is wider
+than my pink sash."
+
+"Lucy, I wish you had seen the waves," said Willie. "Such big ones!
+Nurse, have you ever seen such great waves?"
+
+"Ever seen them, Master Willie? Indeed I have seen much larger ones
+than ever you have, and what's more, I have been on them."
+
+"Oh nurse!" and Willie came up close to her. "Have you really been on
+the sea? Was it very nice? Do tell me about it."
+
+"It is very nice in fine weather, Master Willie, and I shouldn't mind
+it in rough weather if I wasn't seasick. Before I came to live with
+your mamma, I was with a lady who went abroad—out of England, that
+is—and I went with her."
+
+"Did you go to France?" asked Willie.
+
+"Yes, we went to France. And it was very nice in going, for the sun was
+shining, and it was as pleasant as could be. But in coming back, we had
+rough weather. The wind blew very hard, and the ship went up and down,
+and the waves dashed over the deck."
+
+"Oh, nurse, were you wet through?"
+
+"We were not on deck, Master Willie. It was too rough for any one to
+stay there except the sailors, and perhaps some of the gentlemen. I was
+very sick and ill, and I lay down on a couch just under the sky-light."
+
+"I don't know what a sky-light is," said Willie.
+
+"It's a window in the roof, Master Willie, like that which lights the
+hall at home, only this was in the roof of the cabin. Well, I lay under
+it, and all at once a great wave dashed over the deck, broke one of the
+panes, and down poured a stream of water upon me. I had to be pulled
+out of the way, for I was too ill to stand upright."
+
+"Oh, nurse, how funny!" said Willie, laughing.
+
+"I did not think it at all funny at the time, Master Willie," said
+nurse.
+
+"But I should like to go on the water very much," said Willie. "I shall
+ask papa if he won't take me."
+
+"What, on those great waves, Master Willie?"
+
+"No, but when it is quiet again, nurse. It would be such fun. I daresay
+he will."
+
+Willie ran off as he spoke, and found his papa in the parlour.
+
+Mr. Gray was busy writing a letter, so, like a polite little boy,
+Willie waited till he had done, and then said—
+
+"Papa, may I speak now?"
+
+"In a moment, my boy. I must just direct this. That is right. Now, what
+do you want?"
+
+"Papa, I want to know if you will take me on the water—I mean, if you
+don't mind."
+
+"On the sea. I am afraid mamma would not quite approve of that to-day."
+
+"I don't mean to-day, but when the sea is smooth," said Willie. "Nurse
+has been on the water, papa. She went to France."
+
+"Yes, but that was in a steamer. I am afraid you must be content with
+a rowing-boat. We will try if we can manage it before we return home.
+Only we must wait for fine calm weather."
+
+Willie thanked his papa warmly, and ran back to nurse, to tell her what
+Mr. Gray had said.
+
+                       ————————————
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A ROW ON THE WATER.
+
+THE rain did not go on many days, but the wind did, and the sea was
+much too rough for any boating. Even Willie, much as he longed for it,
+could not deny that those great tumbling tossing waves were not quite
+what he would choose.
+
+"But people do have to go sometimes, papa, even when it is rough," he
+said one day.
+
+"Often, Willie, and if it were our duty now, I would go at once and
+take you. But to put ourselves into danger merely for the sake of
+pleasure would be wrong."
+
+"Would there be danger?" asked Willie.
+
+"Not much, perhaps; but there might be danger to a small boat. And I
+love my little boy too well to wish to run even a small risk with him
+when there is no real reason."
+
+"I wish we had gone on the sea when it was so fine," sighed Willie.
+
+"But we did not, Willie, and it cannot be helped now, so it is of no
+use sighing about it," said Mr. Gray, with a smile.
+
+"Only, papa, we are going home in a week, and I am so afraid it will be
+rough all the time."
+
+"Not very likely, I hope. I expect to see a change in a day or two."
+
+Mr. Gray was right, except that the change was rather longer in coming
+than he said. It was not till two days before their return home that
+Willie, on looking out of his window in the morning, saw a smooth calm
+blue sea again. He ran downstairs as soon as he was dressed, crying—
+
+"Mamma, mamma, it is quite fine to-day! May we go on the water?"
+
+"I hope so, Willie. We shall see what papa says."
+
+"I do hope he will take us, mamma. I was so afraid we shouldn't have
+the sea smooth in time. Oh, there he is," and Willie ran to meet Mr.
+Gray in the passage. "Papa, will it do to-day?"
+
+The answer was just what Willie wanted, and Willie was so happy that he
+could hardly sit still or eat his breakfast.
+
+When the afternoon came, they all went down to the beach together.
+Mr. Gray chose a pretty little rowing-boat, and Willie was very much
+pleased to see that the name painted on its side was "The Lucy." Mr.
+Gray then helped in Mrs. Gray and nurse, lifted in Willie and Lucy,
+stepped in himself, and then they were off.
+
+The boat glided smoothly through the water, and Willie thought it very
+nice indeed. First he sat still, looking about him. Then he leaned over
+the side, dipping his hands into the fresh cool water. The sea was
+covered with ripples, and sometimes there came a little wave which made
+the boat give a lurch. The first time Willie was startled, and thought
+the boat would turn over. He jumped up and called out, but Mrs. Gray
+pulled him back, and told him to sit still.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"But I thought the boat was going over, mamma."
+
+"Going over! What, with a little wave like that? O Willie!" said Mrs.
+Gray, smiling. "It is a good thing papa did not take you out on the
+large waves two or three days ago, or even yesterday."
+
+"Besides, Willie," added his papa, "you must not forget that whatever
+you think is going to happen, when you are in a boat, you never ought
+to start up. Even if there were any real danger, a little boy like you
+could not do any good by standing up. You would only run the risk of
+being jerked out into the sea. Always sit quite still upon your seat."
+
+"I should not like to be jerked out," said Willie gravely.
+
+"No, because you might be drowned. So long as you sit still, there is
+little danger of such a thing. But suppose that every time the boat
+gave a roll, mamma and nurse and Lucy and I were all to jump up and run
+to the side of the boat. Why, it would be almost certain to turn over,
+and we might all be drowned. It would not be the first time that such a
+thing has happened."
+
+"I'll try and not forget," said Willie, looking sober. "I don't mind
+the little waves now, mamma. And Lucy isn't afraid of them either. She
+was a great deal more afraid of the tunnel."
+
+"I hope neither of you will mind the tunnel when we go home the day
+after to-morrow," said Mrs. Gray, smiling. "I expect to see two such
+brave children."
+
+They stayed on the water for nearly two hours, when Mr. Gray thought
+they had had enough, so they went home. Willie was sorry to think the
+nice row was over, but he was glad he had been on the sea. He told
+nurse he meant to be a sailor some day, but nurse laughed, and said he
+would most likely change his mind a dozen times before then.
+
+Willie and Lucy had a very pleasant time at the sea-side, but now that
+it was all over, they were not at all sorry to return home. Lucy wanted
+to see her pretty pussy and all her dolls again, and Willie longed for
+his garden, and his little dog, and his rabbits. So when the morning
+came to leave, instead of looking grave, they were as merry as they
+could be.
+
+One thing Willie was quite sure of, and that was that he would never
+forget this pleasant visit to the sea-side. The bright sandy shore, the
+blue ripples, the angry waves, the row in the boat, the rides on the
+donkeys, the visit to the rocks; all, in short, that he had seen, were
+still fresh in his mind.
+
+Let us hope that he never thought of the wonders of the sea without
+thinking also of God who made them all. Willie was a very little boy,
+but he was not too little to be one of Jesus Christ's lambs, and to
+love to think about God in all His works.
+
+Children much younger than Willie have been led to seek their Saviour,
+and have known something of the sin of their own hearts, and of the
+love and mercy of God. The child who reads this story is not too small
+to follow Jesus, to love him, to believe in him, and to honour him. He
+has promised that all who seek him early shall find him, and every year
+it is put off it becomes less easy.
+
+Little child, will not you pray to Jesus to make you one of his
+children, to take away your sinful stony heart, and to give you a heart
+of flesh? Will you not strive to follow him, to obey his commands, and
+to grow more like him every day of your life? You cannot do this in
+your own strength. But Jesus is always ready to help those who humbly
+ask him. And when you are one of the Good Shepherd's flock, then both
+in life and death you will be safe and happy.
+
+
+
+       LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET
+                          AND CHARING CROSS
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77801 ***
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+<head>
+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <title>
+      Willie and Lucy at the Sea-Side. For Very Little Children. │ Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
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+</head>
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77801 ***</div>
+
+<p>Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image001" style="max-width: 33.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image001.jpg" alt="image001">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image002" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image002.jpg" alt="image002">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h1>WILLIE AND LUCY AT THE<br>
+<br>
+SEA-SIDE.</h1>
+</div>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>FOR VERY LITTLE CHILDREN.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p class="t1">
+BY A. G.<br>
+<br>
+<em>[Agnes Giberne]</em><br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+LONDON:<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD;<br>
+AND 164, PICCADILLY.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+LONDON:<br>
+PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STANFORD STREET<br>
+AND CHARING CROSS.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="t3b">
+CONTENTS.<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>CHAPTER.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_1">I. WAKING</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_2">II. THE JOURNEY</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_3">III. THE SEA</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_4">IV. SPADES AND SAND</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_5">V. WILLIE IN BED</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_6">VI. A DONKEY RIDE</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_7">VII. A RAINY DAY</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_8">VIII. ROUGH WEATHER</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_9">IX. A ROW ON THE WATER</a></p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="t2">
+<b>WILLIE AND LUCY AT THE<br>
+<br>
+SEA-SIDE.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image003" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image003.jpg" alt="image003">
+</figure>
+
+</div>
+<p><br></p>
+
+<h2><a id="Chapter_1">CHAPTER I.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>WAKING.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"WAKE up! Wake up! Master Willie."</p>
+
+<p>Willie Gray rubbed his eyes, and sat up in the bed. Then he lay down
+again, and hid his face in the pillow.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so sleepy, nurse. I don't want to get up yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Not get up yet, Master Willie, with the sun shining, and the birds
+singing like this? See;" and she drew the curtains aside, letting a
+bright sunbeam stream on his rosy face and tumbled hair—"it would be a
+shame to sleep any longer."</p>
+
+<p>Willie's eyes were open by this time, and nurse added, "You forget, I
+think, where we are all going to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"To the sea-side!" said Willie, clapping his hands, and wide awake at
+last. "Oh, nurse, are we really going?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure we are, Master and a long journey we have before us too,
+while you are lying there and wanting to go to sleep. There is no time
+to be lost. Come, jump up, and dress as fast as you can. Why, Miss Lucy
+is twice as quick as you."</p>
+
+<p>This made Willie jump out of bed, and set to work in good earnest. With
+nurse's help, he was very soon dressed, and then he knelt down to say
+his morning prayer, asking God to forgive his sins, to make him one of
+Jesus Christ's little lambs, and to bless his dear papa and mamma and
+little sister. Willie had been taught to say his prayers slowly and
+gravely, and to think all the time of what he was saying. He knew that
+if he looked about the room, and thought of other things, he could not
+hope that God would hear him.</p>
+
+<p>This morning his mind was so full of the journey that he found it very
+hard to attend to what he was saying, but he kept his eyes shut, and
+tried not to let such thoughts come into his head. Then he stood up,
+and said his pretty morning hymn, and nurse read to him a few easy
+verses in the Bible, and then Willie gave her a kiss, and ran out of
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>Such a bustle the house was in! Boxes were standing, packed and corded,
+in the hall, and there was papa at a side table, very busy over a great
+basket, which he was filling with buns, and biscuits, and cold chicken,
+all to be eaten on the way.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image004" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image004.jpg" alt="image004">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Little Lucy, Willie's sister, who was only five years old, stood
+looking on very gravely. She was a year younger than Willie, and Willie
+always felt as if he were a great deal older than she was.</p>
+
+<p>"Lucy, isn't it nice?" he said to her. "Don't you think the journey
+will be fun? I do."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't like it," said Lucy, shaking her head. "Nurse says there
+will be a great noise."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but a noise won't hurt you, Lucy. It will be so nice to go
+on—on—faster than you can think. I want so much to see the train. You
+need not be afraid of it, Lucy. I'll take care of you."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are not big enough," said Lucy, with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Gray stopped for a moment in his work of packing, to look down
+and ask—</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, my little girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's afraid of the train, papa," said Willie. "But she needn't be.
+I'll take care of her."</p>
+
+<p>"You!" said Mr. Gray, with a little smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm six years old, papa," said Willie, holding up his head, and
+wishing very much that he were taller.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gray had a bag of biscuits in his hand, which he was just going to
+stow away in the basket. But he put it down for a minute, and patted
+Willie's head.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt you will do the best you can, my boy. But if papa and
+mamma and Lucy had no one to take care of them except their little
+Willie, I don't think they could feel very happy at going such a long
+journey."</p>
+
+<p>"'You' can take care of yourself, papa," said Willie, rather surprised,
+and Lucy said the same.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Lucy, papa can't take care of himself," said Mr. Gray, looking
+down gravely at the two little faces. "Papa is much bigger and stronger
+than either Willie or Lucy, but still he is not big enough or strong
+enough to take care of himself. Willie can tell me who can take care of
+us all."</p>
+
+<p>"God can, papa," said Willie softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Willie, and we must ask God to watch over us on our journey, and
+all the time we are away from home."</p>
+
+<p>"And when we come back too," said Willie gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right, Willie. We should never be happy to pass a single day,
+without feeling that we have prayed God to guard us and watch over us,
+for Jesus Christ's sake. And my little Lucy need have no fears about
+the journey. Willie might wish to take care of her, and might not be
+able, but God is able and willing too."</p>
+
+<p>Willie and Lucy stood looking on in silence for a few minutes, while
+Mr. Gray began again to pack the basket. Presently he shut down the
+lid, and tied it tight with a piece of string.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Willie, will you run and see if mamma is in the parlour, and tell
+her I am ready for breakfast as soon as she can give it to us."</p>
+
+<p>Willie ran off, and found his mamma waiting, so he came back to tell
+his papa. Then he went again to the parlour, and rang the bell for
+family prayers, and put out the large Bible. After prayers, they all
+had breakfast, and a little later started in a fly for the station.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+————————————<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h2><a id="Chapter_2">CHAPTER II.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>THE JOURNEY.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>MR. and Mrs. Gray, with Willie, Lucy, and nurse, stood on the platform
+at the station, waiting for the train to come up. Lucy clung tight to
+nurse's hand, almost wishing herself at home again, and too much afraid
+of all the noise and bustle to feel very happy. Willie tried to cheer
+her up, but she only hid her face in nurse's dress, and then Willie
+grew a little cross, and told her she was "very silly."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, hush, Willie," said Mrs. Gray gently. "Lucy is not silly, but
+she is a very little girl, and does not know any better. Another time
+she will not mind the train, but now it is all new to her, and it
+frightens her."</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image005" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image005.jpg" alt="image005">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't frighten me, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"No, because you are older than Lucy, and you are a boy too. Boys never
+ought to be cowards, and I hope some day Lucy will not be one either.
+See here comes the train."</p>
+
+<p>Brave as Willie thought himself, he could not help stepping close up to
+his mother's side, when there was a shrill whistle, and the great train
+rushed up, with its snorting puffing engine, going slower and slower
+till it quite stopped.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gray took Lucy in his arms, and Mrs. Gray gave Willie her hand, and
+in another minute they were all seated safely in the train. They hardly
+had to wait at all, before there was another whistle and they moved
+off, gently at first but more quickly every moment.</p>
+
+<p>Willie looked out of the window for some time, and could hardly help
+laughing to see all the fields and houses and trees looking just as
+if they were running away. After a while, he grew rather tired of the
+window, and began glancing about the inside of the carriage where they
+were—at the seats, the lamp, the old gentleman in the corner, and the
+two ladies near him. He was rather puzzled to think what the lamp could
+be for, and was just going to ask his mamma, when there was a loud
+sharp whistle, a rushing noise, and they were in perfect darkness,
+except for the glimmer of light from the roof.</p>
+
+<p>Willie was half afraid, but he felt his mother's hand on his shoulder,
+and he could see a smile on her face, though the noise was too great to
+allow of talking. Mr. Gray leaned forward, and said very loud,—</p>
+
+<p>"This is a 'tunnel.'"</p>
+
+<p>And Willie made up his mind to ask by-and-bye what it all meant.</p>
+
+<p>When they came out again into daylight, poor little Lucy was crying
+in nurse's arms, so Mrs. Gray took her on her lap, and gave her a
+biscuit. Then Willie had a game of bo-peep with her, but at this, the
+old gentleman in the corner looked very cross, and said something
+about "noisy tiresome children!" to the lady by his side. Mrs. Gray
+told Willie not to laugh quite so loud, and Willie did as he was told,
+but he thought the old gentleman as tiresome as the old gentleman had
+thought him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll ask mamma why he should mind my laughing," he thought. "That's
+'two' things I want to know."</p>
+
+<p>By-and-bye they stopped at a station, and Willie thought this a good
+time to ask the first of his questions.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa," he said, "what is a tunnel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever see a hill, Willie?" asked Mr. Gray.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, papa—numbers of hills."</p>
+
+<p>"Not so very many, my boy. Still you know what a hill is. Now suppose
+I wanted to make a railroad from my house to Mr. Brown's, how should I
+manage when I came to Heath Hill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Make the train go round, papa," said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"But that would take it so far out of the way. Think of some other
+plan."</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't the train go over the hill?" asked Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"No, uphill will not do. The path must be nearly if not quite
+level—that is, flat—for the train. Heath Hill is very steep."</p>
+
+<p>"Is a tunnel made under the ground, then?" asked Willie slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, Willie. You have found it out now. I should make a
+tunnel under the hill for the train to go through. Do you not call that
+a good plan?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know. It makes such a noise, papa," said Willie, rather
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Who was it that I heard this morning, saying, 'Oh, a noise won't hurt
+you, Lucy'? You are not so brave now as then, Willie."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, papa—I'm not afraid," said Willie, sitting up straight. "I won't
+mind the tunnel next time at all. I did not this time so much as Lucy."</p>
+
+<p>"Lucy is too young to know any better yet. But you are old enough to
+learn what a tunnel is, and not to be timid about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Are people never hurt in a tunnel?" asked Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes they are. And sometimes people are hurt when they are
+driving, and sometimes when they are walking, and sometimes when they
+are sitting quite quiet in the house. No one can be hurt anywhere,
+unless it is the will of God; and if it is, then we shall be hurt
+wherever we are."</p>
+
+<p>"Then no one ought to be afraid," said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"No one, Willie, who can feel that God is his Father and will take care
+of him."</p>
+
+<p>The train was now moving on again, but the cross gentleman and the two
+ladies were gone, so Mr. and Mrs. Gray, and Willie, and Lucy, and nurse
+were alone.</p>
+
+<p>Willie could not help saying, "I am glad he has gone, mamma. He didn't
+like to see me playing."</p>
+
+<p>"He did not like to hear my little boy's noisy laugh," said Mrs. Gray,
+with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"But, mamma, I wasn't near him."</p>
+
+<p>"Near enough to disturb him in his reading, I suppose. Always try,
+Willie, not to disturb grown-up people by talking and laughing too loud
+when they are busy. If you do, they will be sorry to see you come, and
+glad to see you go. You would not like that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I should like them to be glad to see me, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"So they will be, Willie, if you are a gentle polite boy, and think
+more of what other people like than of what you like yourself. Noisy,
+rude, tiresome children are always in the way."</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't mind my laughing, mamma?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not unless I am busy, then I like to be quiet. Perhaps the old
+gentleman in the corner was busy. At any rate, you should always be
+quiet when you are asked, Willie. Don't forget that, dear."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try not, mamma," said Willie, rather gravely.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h2><a id="Chapter_3">CHAPTER III.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>THE SEA.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"HERE we are, Willie! Now for the sea! How fresh and salt the air
+feels!"</p>
+
+<p>"Lucy is asleep, papa," said Willie, rubbing his own eyes, and trying
+to look very wide awake.</p>
+
+<p>"Some one else has been asleep, too, I think," said Mr. Gray, smiling.
+"Never mind; you will feel lively enough after a good night's rest. It
+has been a long journey, and you will be glad of your tea, and your
+bed."</p>
+
+<p>They were now stopping at the station. Mr. Gray stepped out, and lifted
+Willie and Lucy upon the platform. Then he made a porter bring their
+boxes into the road, and put them on a fly, while they all got inside.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Willie, look out," said Mr. Gray, as they drove off.</p>
+
+<p>And Willie did look out. He had never yet seen the sea, and he could
+not at all fancy what it was like. By-and-bye he saw a gleam of blue
+between some houses, and clapped his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, papa! Was that the sea?"</p>
+
+<p>"That was the sea, Willie. There it is again. You did not look in
+time, did you? But we shall drive along the parade in front of it in a
+minute, and then you will see it plainly. Here we come! Now look out!"</p>
+
+<p>Willie looked again, and at last said with a little sigh:</p>
+
+<p>"It's very pretty and blue, papa, and very big. I think if it wasn't so
+big, it would look like our pond at home."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not think so, Willie, when you have seen it with great waves
+dashing about, and the spray flying in the wind. It is very still
+to-day. But you will soon change your mind about its being only like a
+pond."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I find any shells on the shore?" asked Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so. Shells are almost always seen on sandy shores. You must
+dig holes in the sand too, and make hills and towers and all kinds of
+things."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't know what to dig with, papa."</p>
+
+<p>"We will soon manage about that," said Mr. Gray, with a smile. "Do you
+think we could find a spade in the shops for those little fingers?"</p>
+
+<p>"A spade! Oh, thank you, papa. Like what Rogers uses?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not 'quite' so large as that, and it must be of wood. Lucy shall have
+one too."</p>
+
+<p>"A small one," said Willie, looking down at Lucy's tiny hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes—smaller than yours. Nurse will take you out on the shore, and sit
+and work while you dig, and I hope you will be very happy. Now we must
+get out. This is to be our home while we are at the sea-side."</p>
+
+<p>Willie looked up at the house. It was not facing the sea, but was
+some little way up a side street. There was a small garden in front,
+up which Willie ran the moment he was out of the fly. Then he waited
+for his mamma, and she took his hand, and led him upstairs to the
+sitting-room, where the tea-things were laid out. Hats and bonnets were
+taken off, and sleepy little Lucy woke quite up over her milk and bread
+and butter. Willie thought he had never been so hungry in his life, and
+it was a long time before he had done his tea.</p>
+
+<p>Then Lucy was taken off to bed, that she might be quite rested and
+fresh in the morning. Willie begged hard to go on the shore, and Mr.
+Gray said he would take him for a little while. So Willie fetched his
+cap, and they went out, down the street, across the parade, and then
+over the soft crisp sand.</p>
+
+<p>Willie ran and jumped about, and hunted for shells, and almost shouted
+aloud with glee. The tide was now coming in, and the water was less
+smooth than before. Bright dancing waves rolled up, and broke on the
+beach, and Willie stood close at the water's edge, jumping back just in
+time to escape a wetting. Once or twice he was very nearly caught.</p>
+
+<p>There were not many shells to be seen, but he found a few, and put them
+into his pocket to give to Lucy. Like a kind little boy, he thought
+that as he had had the pleasure of the first walk, Lucy should have the
+pleasure of the first shells.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Willie, it is time to think of going home now," said Mr. Gray,
+at last, and Willie came up at once. "What do you think of the sea now?
+Is it no better than a pond?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, papa, a great great deal. It isn't a bit like a pond now. I never
+saw such waves!"</p>
+
+<p>"These are very small waves, Willie. Perhaps some day before we leave,
+you may see some really large ones. Now we must go home, for it is time
+that little boys should be in bed after such a long journey. In the
+morning, I hope you will have a nice game on the shore."</p>
+
+<p>Willie gave a wistful look up into his father's face, and Mr. Gray saw
+what he was thinking of.</p>
+
+<p>"You will want the spades, will you not? We must see what we can do.
+Now take one more look at the sea, and then we must leave the beach."</p>
+
+<p>Willie did so, and turned away with a sigh of delight, as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Papa, I think the sea is the best thing in all the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait till you have seen all the world, my boy, before you decide. But
+I quite agree with you in thinking it a most grand and lovely sight. I
+have never yet seen anything that I could enjoy more."</p>
+
+<p>"And only think, papa—a month or six weeks here," said Willie, as they
+walked over the parade. "Such a nice long time! I do hope it will be
+fine."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely it will much of the time. Sometimes of course we must
+expect rain, and then I hope you will bear it with good-temper, and
+amuse yourself indoors as well as you can. Here we are at the house.
+Now good-night, and run upstairs to nurse."</p>
+
+<p>Willie did so, and was soon ready for bed. Lucy was asleep, so he kept
+the shells to give her in the morning, and in a little while he too was
+asleep and dreaming of the sea.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+————————————<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h2><a id="Chapter_4">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>SPADES AND SAND.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>NEXT morning Willie gave Lucy the shells he had found, and she was very
+much pleased with them indeed. She jumped out of her bed, and gave him
+a kiss, and thanked him over and over again, saying—</p>
+
+<p>"How kind of you, Willie! But don't you want them?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I would rather you should have them, Lucy. And we will try to find
+some more to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast time soon came, and when the meal was over, nurse told Willie
+to get his cap, and then to keep quiet while she dressed Lucy, for they
+were going out on the shore. Willie found it very hard to stand still,
+while he was so happy; but he knew that if he jumped about, Lucy would
+want to do the same, so he only walked to the window and stood there,
+swinging his cap, and begging nurse to "make great haste."</p>
+
+<p>At last they left the house, and Lucy held nurse's hand tight, and
+looked shy and timid as she always did in new places; but Willie wanted
+to scamper about, and did not like being called back by nurse.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I shan't lose myself, nurse," he said, "and I won't get into
+mischief. Let me run along the parade, or down on the sands. Are we not
+going on the shore?"</p>
+
+<p>"In a few minutes," nurse replied. "And don't run so far away again,
+Master Willie, or I shall be losing sight of you."</p>
+
+<p>"But if you did, I could find my way home," said Willie, feeling a
+little bit inclined to be cross at not being allowed to run as far as
+he liked.</p>
+
+<p>"But what do you think your mamma would say if I went home without
+you?" asked nurse. "No, no, Master Willie, you must be a good boy, and
+do as you are told, or I shall have to hold your hand and make you
+walk by my side. Here we are at the shop. Do you think you can help me
+choose two nice spades?"</p>
+
+<p>Willie looked up with a smile, and clapped his hands.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image006" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image006.jpg" alt="image006">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"O nurse! How kind! Are we going to have them now? Did papa say so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and here is the money," said nurse.</p>
+
+<p>Then she told the shopwoman to show them some wooden spades, and very
+soon two were chosen and paid for,—a small one for Lucy, and a rather
+larger one for Willie.</p>
+
+<p>How grand Willie felt as they walked towards the beach, and he swung
+his spade about! Nurse told him to carry it gently, but he forgot once
+or twice, and at length nearly knocked a little boy with it. Then
+nurse almost took it away from him, but Willie begged her to try him
+once more, and said he would be very careful, so she gave him one more
+trial. This time he did not forget, and as he did not swing it again,
+nurse let him carry it all the way.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the beach, she sat down on the sands, and took out
+her work. Willie and Lucy began digging holes near her, and trying
+which could dig the deepest. Of course Willie was the strongest, and
+made the largest hole, so he came and helped Lucy to make hers bigger.</p>
+
+<p>"May we go down close to the water, nurse?" asked Willie after a time.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will not get into any mischief," said nurse. "And Miss Lucy
+too? Well, you must take great care of her, and both of you must come
+back to me in a moment if I call you. I can't sit down there, for the
+sand is too flat and not dry enough, and I must get on with my work,
+for your mamma wants it done. But you may go if you like, only be very
+steady and careful."</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image007" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image007.jpg" alt="image007">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Willie took Lucy's hand, and they ran down the beach, till they were
+close to the rippling waves, which rolled up and broke upon the wet
+sparkling sand. Willie began digging again, and was pleased to see
+his hole fill with water. Lucy tried to help him, but she could not
+manage her spade very well, and sometimes she knocked the sand into the
+hole, instead of taking it out. Willie bore it once or twice without a
+word, and then he asked her to take more care. Lucy tried, but again
+her spade slipped, and down went a lump of wet sand into Willie's nice
+large hole. Willie began to grow angry.</p>
+
+<p>"Lucy, you tiresome girl!" he cried. "I won't dig with you at all, if
+you spoil my holes like that. Look what you have done!" And he stamped
+his foot on the ground. "How can you be so stupid?"</p>
+
+<p>Poor little Lucy's eyes filled with tears, and her cheeks flushed, as
+she dropped the spade and stepped back. Willie did not mean to frighten
+her; but he still felt too vexed to say he was sorry for his unkind
+words, so he only turned his back to her, and began throwing stones
+into the sea.</p>
+
+<p>"Willie, I didn't mean to do it," said Lucy at last, in her soft timid
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"You should take care," said Willie, turning round to her again. "You
+spoil my holes when you knock the sand about like that."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't do it again," said Lucy in a trembling voice, and with a
+little sob. "Please don't be angry, Willie."</p>
+
+<p>How could Willie be angry any longer before that gentle little face. He
+walked up to her, and gave her a kiss.</p>
+
+<p>"There! You're a dear little thing, and I'm a cross boy, Lucy. I won't
+scold you any more now. You shall dig as much as you like, only don't
+throw sand into this one great hole, because I want it to be very big."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't dig," said Lucy sadly. "I don't know how, Willie. I'll look at
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll tell you what, Lucy; we won't dig any more holes, but we'll
+make a great high hill of sand, and then I'll stand on it while the
+water comes up all round me. Won't that be nice?"</p>
+
+<p>Lucy looked bright again, and in a minute they were hard at work,
+piling up the sand and throwing on fresh spades-full, till it really
+was a very large heap to have been made by such little people. Nurse
+came down to see what they were about, and she was glad to find them so
+happy. But Lucy was growing tired and hot, so she took her back with
+her to sit quiet. Willie told nurse what he was making his hill for,
+but she shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, that won't do, Master Willie. I shall have you tumbling into the
+water."</p>
+
+<p>"But indeed, nurse, I can 'quite' well jump to shore again, when the
+water is all round it," said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I can't have you do it, Master Willie. The water is coming in so
+fast that it would be round you before you knew what you were about;
+and suppose you should jump into the water instead of on dry land!"</p>
+
+<p>Nurse went away as she spoke, taking Lucy with her. Willie stood in no
+happy mood, gazing at the hill which had cost him so much trouble, and
+feeling not a little cross.</p>
+
+<p>"It's too bad," he said to himself. "Nurse treats me as if I were a
+little baby, and she forgets how old I am. It would be so nice to stand
+on the top, and see the water come all round me. I wish mamma were out
+here. I am sure she would let me do it."</p>
+
+<p>What a silly little boy Willie was, to make himself so cross about what
+he could not do, instead of being happy about what he could do. He
+stood and looked at the hill, watching the water creeping higher, and
+the little waves breaking against it; and every moment the longing grew
+stronger to stand if but for one moment on the top.</p>
+
+<p>"It couldn't do any harm," he said again. Oh, Willie! "No harm" when
+nurse told you not to do it!</p>
+
+<p>"I could easily jump there and back," he thought, "and I wouldn't stay
+there. It looks just like a little island when the water runs up all
+round it like that. Nurse thinks I can't do anything. I have a great
+mind just to try. Nurse isn't looking, nor Lucy either."</p>
+
+<p>All this passed through Willie's mind a great deal faster than it can
+be written down. What a pity it was that Willie should allow himself to
+look on so long, and to wish so much for what he knew he ought not to
+do. He did not think of asking help from God, who is always willing to
+give it; and little Willie had no strength in himself to conquer the
+naughty wishes that were tempting him to do wrong.</p>
+
+<p>He looked again to see if nurse saw him, but she was busy with her
+work, and Lucy's back was turned. Willie still paused a moment, and
+then the desire became too strong to be overcome.</p>
+
+<p>He gave a leap and reached the top of the little mound, meaning to jump
+back in a moment. But it had been thrown up very loosely, and the waves
+had even now soaked in beneath, and washed away part of the sides, and
+the soft wet sand gave way in an instant under Willie's feet.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image008" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image008.jpg" alt="image008">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Down he went, and splash!—He fell on his face into the middle of the
+next wave that came dancing up.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h2><a id="Chapter_5">CHAPTER V.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>WILLIE IN BED.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>WHAT a shriek Willie gave! Poor nurse was startled, indeed, to hear
+it, and still more to see Willie going down with such a splash into
+the water. She jumped up, and ran down the beach as fast as she could,
+while poor Lucy came crying after her. By the time they reached the
+water's edge, Willie had managed to struggle to his hands and feet, and
+to scramble back to shore.</p>
+
+<p>Very wretched he looked, dripping with water from head to foot, and
+with tears of mingled alarm at his fall, and fear of nurse's anger,
+running down his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Master Willie!" was all nurse said. "I thought I could trust you
+to do as you were told. You must come home now as fast as you can, and
+take off your wet things. I don't know what your mamma will say."</p>
+
+<p>Willie began to sob; but nurse hurried him up the beach and towards the
+house, while the water ran from his clothes, making little puddles on
+the parade and the road; and people turned in great surprise to look at
+the wet tearful little boy, and to wonder what was the matter.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gray was not in the house, rather to Willie's relief, for he
+dreaded her hearing all that had passed.</p>
+
+<p>Nurse took him upstairs, and after pulling off his soaking clothes made
+him get into bed. Willie did not like this at all, and begged hard that
+he might sit up, but nurse would not allow it.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Master Willie," she said. "If it was not your own fault, I would
+let you put on your best things; but now it is all through your being
+so naughty as to do what I said you must not, you must lie in bed till
+your things are dry. Now, Master Willie, if you cry and make a noise, I
+shall have to punish you by keeping you there longer still," she added.
+"You should be a wise boy, and show you are sorry for being so naughty,
+by being now as good and quiet as you can."</p>
+
+<p>"It's so hard to lie in bed," sobbed Willie. "I don't like it at all,
+nurse. It is so unkind of you."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wish to seem unkind, Master Willie," said nurse gravely. "But
+when you don't obey me, I must punish you for it. You know very well
+that your mamma will say I am quite right. It would be no real kindness
+to pass it over, and treat you as if you had been a good little boy."</p>
+
+<p>But Willie felt cross and angry with himself, and therefore with every
+one else besides. He rolled about in the bed, and sobbed aloud, until
+nurse left the room, hoping he would be more quiet alone.</p>
+
+<p>When there was no one to hear him, Willie did not care to go on crying,
+and he quite left off, until there was a step outside the door, and
+Mrs. Gray came in. Then the tears began to fall again.</p>
+
+<p>"Willie! Willie! I am sorry to hear this of you," she said, sitting
+down on the bed, and speaking sadly. "I did hope my little boy could at
+least be trusted to do what he was told."</p>
+
+<p>"It is so unkind of nurse to put me to bed," sobbed Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Willie, not unkind. Nurse is never unkind. She was quite right to
+punish you for such conduct."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean any harm, mamma. I thought the sand was quite strong."</p>
+
+<p>"Willie," said Mrs. Gray, "what had nurse told you only five minutes
+before?"</p>
+
+<p>Willie twisted his face away, and almost hid it in the pillow.</p>
+
+<p>"Nurse thinks I can't do anything, mamma. I'm not a little baby now!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I am afraid you are likely to become something much worse,
+Willie, if this is the way you mean to behave," said Mrs. Gray, so
+sadly, that Willie could not help looking at her.</p>
+
+<p>Were those tears in her eyes? Willie could not quite bear that, and he
+jumped up and put his arm round his mother's neck.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma, I didn't mean to make you sorry. I'll try not to do it again."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Willie, I hope it is the last time I shall hear of such a
+thing. You have grieved me very much this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, mamma," said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are really sorry, Willie dear, you know that I am quite ready
+to forgive you. But there is One whose pardon you ought to ask even
+before mine."</p>
+
+<p>Willie hung his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I know, mamma," he said, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"And will you do it, Willie?" asked Mrs. Gray gently. "May I hope that
+my little boy will indeed ask God to forgive him for Jesus Christ's
+sake, and to keep him from such naughty conduct in the future."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try, mamma," said Willie softly.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gray kissed him, and then went on:—</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Willie, I want to ask you one or two questions. Did you really
+think this morning that you—a little boy of six—could judge better than
+nurse of what you ought or ought not to do?"</p>
+
+<p>Willie's face grew red, and he hung his head again.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, mamma. I thought I was big enough to take care of
+myself. Nurse always fancies that I can't do things."</p>
+
+<p>"You see now, Willie, that nurse knew better than you did. If you had
+done as she told you, you might have been playing out on the sands all
+this time, instead of lying here in bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mamma," was all Willie could say, for he felt very tearful at the
+thought of the bright sunny shore and sparkling waves.</p>
+
+<p>"I daresay, Willie, that you thought it a rather grand thing to do what
+you were told not to do. You felt very big and old,—did you not?—almost
+too old to obey nurse."</p>
+
+<p>Willie blushed scarlet, for Mrs. Gray had just guessed his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Willie, I do not think you ever made a greater mistake in your
+life. You will find when you grow older that the best and greatest and
+wisest men in the world are almost always those who are the most ready
+to 'obey' when it is right."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I, mamma?" asked Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed you will, dear. And, Willie, when the Lord Jesus Christ was
+a little child, he did not think himself too wise or too old to obey
+his mother and Joseph. And yet they were only a poor carpenter and his
+wife, and knew very little, while he was the Son of God, and knew more
+than any one in the whole world. Can you tell me a verse which I showed
+you last Sunday, proving that he did obey them?"</p>
+
+<p>Willie thought a minute, and then said:</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it after he had been in the temple, mamma, and the Bible says,
+'He was subject to them?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right, Willie. I am glad you do not forget. You can tell me what
+'subject to them' means?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did what they told him," said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Willie. And yet, though only a child of twelve years old, he
+could answer and perplex all the grave learned doctors, and amaze them
+with his wisdom. If ever a child might have thought himself too old and
+too wise to obey his parents, surely the Lord Jesus might have done so."</p>
+
+<p>"He was 'so' good," said Willie, slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Willie, he was so good and holy, too humble and meek for any such
+thing. Willie, will you try and take the Lord Jesus Christ for your
+pattern?—Try and act like him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how," said Willie gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Not know how?" said Mrs. Gray gently. "Willie, there is only one way
+in which you can do it, and that is to become one of his little lambs.
+The only way is to go to him, and ask him to wash away all your sins in
+his precious blood, and to give you a new heart, and to make you meek,
+and gentle, and loving, like himself. You are a very little boy, but
+you are not too young to serve the Lord Jesus Christ."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how," said Willie again, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"There are many ways, Willie, in which even a little boy like you may
+serve him. By always doing what you are told, and by being kind and
+gentle to all, and by giving up your own will for the sake of others,
+and by striving to honour him in your conduct. If it is all done out of
+love to Jesus, then you are serving him, but not if it comes only from
+the love of praise or the fear of blame."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to be good, mamma," said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"So should I like to see you so, Willie. You know that no one in the
+world is ever truly 'good,' or ever has been so, except the Lord Jesus.
+But I cannot tell you how happy it would make me to know that my little
+boy was indeed one of his little lambs. Jesus is so ready to receive
+little children, Willie. He will never cast out one of them that come
+to him. And his promise is that those who seek him early shall find
+him. You can tell me the verse I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"'I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find
+me,'" said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Right, dear. Try not to forget that, Willie. I must leave you now, for
+I am wanted in the drawing-room. But I hope that when nurse comes in,
+you will tell her you are sorry for having done what she told you not
+to do."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell her, mamma," said Willie rather slowly, and Mrs. Gray kissed
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure you 'feel' sorry for it now, Willie. If it is a little hard
+to tell nurse so, you must not mind, for it is the right thing to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma, I always do what you and papa tell me," said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you do, Willie. What do you mean, dear? What is it you want to
+say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nurse isn't the same," said Willie, blushing and half afraid.</p>
+
+<p>"Not the same, Willie! Not when papa and I have chosen her to take care
+of you, and trust you with her? Did you not know it was my wish that
+you should obey her? Have I never told you to do so?"</p>
+
+<p>Willie hung his head.</p>
+
+<p>"If you do not obey nurse, it is the same as not obeying me, Willie,"
+said Mrs. Gray. "I hope you will not forget this again."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry," said Willie, raising his face. "I'll tell her so, mamma,
+and I'll try never to do it again."</p>
+
+<p>"With God's help, Willie," said Mrs. Gray gently, and after giving him
+one more kiss she left the room.</p>
+
+<p>Nurse came in soon after, with the now dry clothes in her arms, and
+Willie did not forget his promise. He felt much more happy when nurse
+kissed him, and told him she quite forgave him.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h2><a id="Chapter_6">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>A DONKEY RIDE.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"WHO wants a ride on a donkey to-day?" asked Mr. Gray one morning,
+about a week after their journey to the sea-side.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh papa!" "Oh papa!" cried Willie and Lucy at once.</p>
+
+<p>"What, both of you? How are we to find so many donkeys, do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh papa, may we really have a ride?" asked Willie. "How kind of you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like it better than digging in the sand? Because you know
+you can't dig when you are perched up on the donkey's back," said papa,
+looking very funny.</p>
+
+<p>And Willie and Lucy laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we'll leave our spades behind, papa," said Willie. "Won't it be
+nice, Lucy? But will Lucy be able to ride?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we must find her a donkey with a nice high saddle—a saddle with
+sides and a back, so that she cannot well fall off."</p>
+
+<p>Lucy was soon dressed, and she and Willie went down to the beach with
+Mr. Gray.</p>
+
+<p>A great many donkeys stood there, and a great many boys were taking
+care of them. Each seemed very eager for 'his' donkeys to be taken, and
+they called out so loud, and crowded round so close, that Willie was
+half afraid, and Lucy clung closely to papa's hand.</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Gray soon fixed on two nice clean-looking donkeys, lifted up
+Lucy, helped Willie to mount, and in a minute more they were off.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy looked grave, and held her papa's hand, as he walked by her side,
+but Willie was not a bit afraid. He jogged up and down, trying to make
+his donkey go faster.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa, mayn't I have a real gallop?" he asked. "The donkey won't go
+fast."</p>
+
+<p>"Gallop, my boy! I don't think you would keep your seat long, if you
+tried a gallop. This is the first ride you have ever had, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, papa, I should keep my seat I am quite sure. I saw a little boy
+just now, hardly bigger than Lucy, and he was going quite fast."</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image009" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image009.jpg" alt="image009">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"I daresay he had often been out riding before, Willie."</p>
+
+<p>Willie's face looked rather cloudy, and he said, half to himself—</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I shouldn't fall off."</p>
+
+<p>"Willie," said Mr. Gray in a quiet tone, "did you ever hear of a little
+boy who was quite certain he could jump upon a sand mound that he had
+made, when his nurse told him not."</p>
+
+<p>Willie grew rather red.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, papa, I won't say, I'm 'sure,'" he said, after a pause. "But
+won't you let me go a little faster, and I'll try not to fall off."</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, Willie," said Mr. Gray, with a smile. "I like to see
+a little boy who can allow that he has been in the wrong or made a
+mistake. Yes, you may go faster if you like, but hold on tight."</p>
+
+<p>A stroke from the donkey-boy's stick made the donkey start off at a
+trot. Willie soon felt that he was not quite so sure of his seat as
+he had fancied, and he was glad he had not tried to gallop. Soon the
+donkey went more slowly again, and then Mr. Gray and Lucy came up.
+Willie asked his papa where they were going.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see those rocks, Willie, on the shore-low dark rocks, down to
+the water's edge?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see, papa. Are they pretty rocks?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not very. That dark colour is from the sea-weeds which grow over them.
+But I want to find some 'sea-anemones' to show you."</p>
+
+<p>"An-em-o-nes," said Willie slowly. "I don't know what they are, papa.
+Are they alive, and do they live on the rocks?"</p>
+
+<p>"Both. They are living creatures, and they fasten themselves to
+rocks, where they stay and catch food with what you would call their
+'feelers.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Like the feelers of a butterfly?" asked Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"No, the feelers of a sea-anemone are soft and fleshy, and there are a
+great many of them. Sometimes they are of lovely colours, and when they
+are opened out, the anemone looks like a bright flower in the water."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how pretty, papa! I hope we shall see one."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid we shall not find any here with very bright colours,
+Willie, and now the tide is low, they will very likely be all shut up.
+But we will do our best."</p>
+
+<p>Soon the rocks were reached, and Mr. Gray lifted Lucy and Willie to
+the ground. Mr. Gray held Lucy's hand, and led her on the rocks, while
+he told Willie to take care that he did not slip on the wet slimy
+sea-weeds. He soon found a small anemone, and called Willie to see it,
+but it was shut up, and Willie thought it very ugly.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image010" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image010.jpg" alt="image010">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Then Willie found a crab, and he took hold of it, but it pinched his
+fingers, and he let it fall, with a cry.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, Willie?" asked Mr. Gray.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image011" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image011.jpg" alt="image011">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"Only a nasty crab, papa," said Willie, squeezing his finger. "He gave
+me a pinch when I took him up."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you must take care how you handle crabs. See, here is a fine large
+one. Look how he runs."</p>
+
+<p>"He goes sideways," said Willie. "I've seen the little wee crabs do
+that on the sand. I'm glad I didn't take up that one. He is so big that
+he would have pinched me very hard. Oh, papa, what is this? May I take
+it up, or will it hurt me? Is it alive?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but it will not hurt you. It is called a star-fish."</p>
+
+<p>Willie and Lucy both felt the rough pink skin, which was as hard and
+stiff as leather, and Willie asked how it could walk, with "five legs
+sticking out all round."</p>
+
+<p>"Those are not legs," said Mr. Gray. "They are called rays. The legs,
+or rather the feet, are on the rays, and are very small indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"What a funny thing it is," said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"There are many strange creatures found in the sea, Willie. God has
+made as many wonderful things in the sea as on land. Do you know there
+is one kind of star-fish, which, when you touch it, seems to go into a
+passion and throws off its rays."</p>
+
+<p>Willie and Lucy both laughed at the idea of the little star-fish
+throwing off his rays, and Willie said—</p>
+
+<p>"It would be very funny, I think, if Lucy and I were to throw off our
+arms and legs when we are angry."</p>
+
+<p>"Worse than funny, Willie, for it would be very wrong if such a thing
+could be," said Mr. Gray. "It is always wrong for little boys and girls
+to be angry. But the star-fish does not know any better, and cannot
+learn. Now look into this pool, and tell me what you can see."</p>
+
+<p>"Fish, papa—oh! What dear little fishes!" cried Willie. "And what are
+those?—Are they fish too?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, they are prawns," said Mr. Gray. "Did you never hear of prawns?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, I've seen them in the shops," said Willie, "and they are like
+big shrimps. But I thought they were red."</p>
+
+<p>"When they are cooked," said Mr. Gray, laughing. "And so are crabs and
+lobsters. But you don't find them ready cooked on the sea-shore."</p>
+
+<p>Willie grew as red as the boiled prawns, at his own mistake.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, Willie," said his papa kindly. "A little boy who has never
+been to the sea before, cannot of course know such things. You will be
+wiser now. I think it is time to return to the donkeys, and to go home.
+Perhaps some day we will come here again, and stay longer."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad we have been," said Willie. "I shan't forget what we have
+seen. Some crabs, and some prawns, and some fishes, and a star-fish,
+and a sea-anemone."</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h2><a id="Chapter_7">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>A RAINY DAY.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"OH, mamma, a rainy day! I'm so sorry," sighed Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Willie, I don't think we must complain. One day of rain after
+nearly a month of fine weather, is not so very bad."</p>
+
+<p>"But we are going home in a few days, and perhaps it will rain all the
+time," said Willie in a very dismal voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all likely, Willie. I daresay it will be quite fine again in a
+day or two. It may even clear up this evening. Come, don't waste time
+in gazing out of the window. That will do you no good."</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing to do, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing to do! Where is that nice book papa gave you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have read it all through, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose you draw me a picture then. Here is a pencil, and a piece of
+paper."</p>
+
+<p>Willie slowly sat down, and made a few listless strokes, then threw the
+pencil on the table, with a yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what to draw, mamma. I wish it would stop raining."</p>
+
+<p>"Wishing won't do much good. Draw a picture of a little boy riding
+along on a donkey, or digging in the sand, or bathing in the sea."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can't, mamma. I don't know how to draw."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Willie, don't be pettish. I shall begin to think you have had
+too much fun and play, and want to go home again."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to go home, mamma," said Willie, looking very downcast.
+"I should like to stay at the sea-side."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Willie, I should be sorry for you to do so much longer, if you
+cannot bear a single wet day here with good-temper. At home you can be
+happy enough when it rains."</p>
+
+<p>"My toys and books are all there, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little boy! Well, suppose you come and hold this skein of wool
+for me while I wind it. That will be useful, at all events."</p>
+
+<p>Willie did as he was asked, but he did not look any brighter. For a
+minute or two Mrs. Gray wound in silence, and then she asked in a
+cheerful tone—</p>
+
+<p>"What has Lucy been doing all the morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Playing, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think she would have been much more happy, Willie, if she
+had spent her time in gazing out of the window, longing for the rain to
+stop?"</p>
+
+<p>"She doesn't mind staying in doors so much as I do," said Willie,
+hanging his head, and looking very much as if he wanted to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Because, I suppose, she has been too busy to think about it. What a
+pity you have not been the same. Take care; you are letting my skein
+slip off your hand. Now you must hold it quite tight while I undo this
+knot. That is right. What do you think papa said to me this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"He was so glad to see the rain come at last."</p>
+
+<p>Willie looked as if he thought such a remark very strange, to say the
+least. Glad to see the rain!</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know why, do you? Rain is very much wanted just now in
+England. There has been so little that the grass is getting parched and
+dry, and if we were without it much longer, the harvest this year would
+be a very bad one."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like the rain," said Willie, in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Not for its own sake, perhaps; but for the sake of the poor, you ought
+to be glad to see it, Willie. It seems very hard to you to be kept in
+for one day, when you want to go out. But how do you think you would
+feel, if you were a poor little ragged boy, and knew that unless the
+rain fell, the corn would not grow, and bread would be so dear all the
+winter that you must expect to be often half-starved."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't like it," said Willie. "Are little boys often
+half-starved?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very often, when their fathers and mothers have not enough money to
+buy all the food they want. And the more the bread costs, the less they
+can buy."</p>
+
+<p>"Does it cost more when there isn't much rain?" asked Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it does, Willie. You know that corn, like grass and plants,
+cannot grow without water, and if it has not enough, it is poor and
+stunted, and gives only a small supply of flour to make bread. Then
+there is less bread than usual, and people have to pay more for it. We
+have not had rain now for a long time, and only a day or two ago we
+heard that some farmers were very anxious about their corn. They were
+afraid that a great deal of it would be quite spoiled."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they want much rain, mamma?" asked Willie, in a very sober tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a very great deal, I daresay. But this nice steady down-pour is
+just what they wish for. There is one more reason why I never like to
+see little boys or girls pettish and cross about the weather. You know
+who sends the rain, or makes it fine, Willie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mamma," said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"God sends it, Willie, and therefore it must be right, and the best
+weather we could have. Even when we cannot see that it is so, we ought
+to believe it."</p>
+
+<p>Willie gave a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't be cross any more, mamma. I'll draw a picture when the skein
+is done, and then I'll go and have a game with Lucy. She asked me to
+play, and I wouldn't."</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, Willie. I am glad to see a bright face again. For your
+sake I hope the rain will not go on long,—not longer than is needed to
+make the corn grow."</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h2><a id="Chapter_8">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>ROUGH WEATHER.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>IT rained all that day, and nearly all the next. Towards evening it
+stopped, but the wind was blowing hard, and Willie could catch a
+glimpse of the sea from his window, looking dark and rough, instead of
+blue and calm. He longed very much to go down on the shore, but so long
+as the rain lasted Mrs. Gray said he must stay indoors.</p>
+
+<p>When it stopped, his papa said to him—</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Willie, we will go out for half-an-hour. Ask nurse to wrap you up
+well, and we will have a little ramble."</p>
+
+<p>Willie ran away in great glee, and soon came back quite ready. Lucy
+wanted to go too, but the wind was too strong and the ground too wet
+for her, so Willie went alone with his papa.</p>
+
+<p>As they walked down the street and across the parade, Willie could hear
+the noise of the sea growing louder and louder. And when at last they
+stood on the shore, he held his father's hand, almost afraid of the
+sight before him. The wind blew hard and whistled in his ears, and the
+great waves rolled up and dashed down upon the shore, with such a noise
+that he could hardly hear his father's voice. He thought at first that
+it was raining hard, and asked if he should put up his umbrella, but
+Mr. Gray shook his head, and said—"No, it is only the spray."</p>
+
+<p>Then Willie saw that it was nothing but the spray, blown by the wind
+from the breaking waves. A great many sea-weeds lay on the beach, and
+Willie found one very long piece of ribbon-sea-weed, which trailed on
+the ground, even when he held it up as high as he could in the air.</p>
+
+<p>"May I take it home, and show it to Lucy, papa?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"If you like," said Mr. Gray. "I daresay Lucy will like to see it.
+There comes a great wave, Willie!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is such a nice noise," said Willie, jumping up and down. "Oh, look
+at that wave! I do wonder the sea doesn't wash away all the sand."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not surprised at your wonder, Willie. But it is God's will that
+the weak soft sand should keep back the strong fierce sea. When we
+get home, if you will remind me, I will show you in the thirty-fourth
+chapter of Job, how God says that He has set bars and doors to the sea,
+and has said, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall
+thy proud waves be stayed.' But for that we might indeed expect to see
+the sand very soon washed away. You see it is the door that God has set
+to keep the sea in its place."</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image012" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image012.jpg" alt="image012">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Willie and his papa stayed a little while longer, and then went home.
+Willie then gave Lucy the long piece of sea-weed, much to her delight.</p>
+
+<p>"What a great long one it is," said Lucy, holding it up. "It is wider
+than my pink sash."</p>
+
+<p>"Lucy, I wish you had seen the waves," said Willie. "Such big ones!
+Nurse, have you ever seen such great waves?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ever seen them, Master Willie? Indeed I have seen much larger ones
+than ever you have, and what's more, I have been on them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh nurse!" and Willie came up close to her. "Have you really been on
+the sea? Was it very nice? Do tell me about it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very nice in fine weather, Master Willie, and I shouldn't mind
+it in rough weather if I wasn't seasick. Before I came to live with
+your mamma, I was with a lady who went abroad—out of England, that
+is—and I went with her."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you go to France?" asked Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we went to France. And it was very nice in going, for the sun was
+shining, and it was as pleasant as could be. But in coming back, we had
+rough weather. The wind blew very hard, and the ship went up and down,
+and the waves dashed over the deck."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nurse, were you wet through?"</p>
+
+<p>"We were not on deck, Master Willie. It was too rough for any one to
+stay there except the sailors, and perhaps some of the gentlemen. I was
+very sick and ill, and I lay down on a couch just under the sky-light."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what a sky-light is," said Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a window in the roof, Master Willie, like that which lights the
+hall at home, only this was in the roof of the cabin. Well, I lay under
+it, and all at once a great wave dashed over the deck, broke one of the
+panes, and down poured a stream of water upon me. I had to be pulled
+out of the way, for I was too ill to stand upright."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nurse, how funny!" said Willie, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not think it at all funny at the time, Master Willie," said
+nurse.</p>
+
+<p>"But I should like to go on the water very much," said Willie. "I shall
+ask papa if he won't take me."</p>
+
+<p>"What, on those great waves, Master Willie?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but when it is quiet again, nurse. It would be such fun. I daresay
+he will."</p>
+
+<p>Willie ran off as he spoke, and found his papa in the parlour.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gray was busy writing a letter, so, like a polite little boy,
+Willie waited till he had done, and then said—</p>
+
+<p>"Papa, may I speak now?"</p>
+
+<p>"In a moment, my boy. I must just direct this. That is right. Now, what
+do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"Papa, I want to know if you will take me on the water—I mean, if you
+don't mind."</p>
+
+<p>"On the sea. I am afraid mamma would not quite approve of that to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mean to-day, but when the sea is smooth," said Willie. "Nurse
+has been on the water, papa. She went to France."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but that was in a steamer. I am afraid you must be content with
+a rowing-boat. We will try if we can manage it before we return home.
+Only we must wait for fine calm weather."</p>
+
+<p>Willie thanked his papa warmly, and ran back to nurse, to tell her what
+Mr. Gray had said.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+————————————<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h2><a id="Chapter_9">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>A ROW ON THE WATER.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>THE rain did not go on many days, but the wind did, and the sea was
+much too rough for any boating. Even Willie, much as he longed for it,
+could not deny that those great tumbling tossing waves were not quite
+what he would choose.</p>
+
+<p>"But people do have to go sometimes, papa, even when it is rough," he
+said one day.</p>
+
+<p>"Often, Willie, and if it were our duty now, I would go at once and
+take you. But to put ourselves into danger merely for the sake of
+pleasure would be wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Would there be danger?" asked Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much, perhaps; but there might be danger to a small boat. And I
+love my little boy too well to wish to run even a small risk with him
+when there is no real reason."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we had gone on the sea when it was so fine," sighed Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"But we did not, Willie, and it cannot be helped now, so it is of no
+use sighing about it," said Mr. Gray, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Only, papa, we are going home in a week, and I am so afraid it will be
+rough all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Not very likely, I hope. I expect to see a change in a day or two."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gray was right, except that the change was rather longer in coming
+than he said. It was not till two days before their return home that
+Willie, on looking out of his window in the morning, saw a smooth calm
+blue sea again. He ran downstairs as soon as he was dressed, crying—</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma, mamma, it is quite fine to-day! May we go on the water?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so, Willie. We shall see what papa says."</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope he will take us, mamma. I was so afraid we shouldn't have
+the sea smooth in time. Oh, there he is," and Willie ran to meet Mr.
+Gray in the passage. "Papa, will it do to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>The answer was just what Willie wanted, and Willie was so happy that he
+could hardly sit still or eat his breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>When the afternoon came, they all went down to the beach together.
+Mr. Gray chose a pretty little rowing-boat, and Willie was very much
+pleased to see that the name painted on its side was "The Lucy." Mr.
+Gray then helped in Mrs. Gray and nurse, lifted in Willie and Lucy,
+stepped in himself, and then they were off.</p>
+
+<p>The boat glided smoothly through the water, and Willie thought it very
+nice indeed. First he sat still, looking about him. Then he leaned over
+the side, dipping his hands into the fresh cool water. The sea was
+covered with ripples, and sometimes there came a little wave which made
+the boat give a lurch. The first time Willie was startled, and thought
+the boat would turn over. He jumped up and called out, but Mrs. Gray
+pulled him back, and told him to sit still.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image013" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image013.jpg" alt="image013">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"But I thought the boat was going over, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Going over! What, with a little wave like that? O Willie!" said Mrs.
+Gray, smiling. "It is a good thing papa did not take you out on the
+large waves two or three days ago, or even yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, Willie," added his papa, "you must not forget that whatever
+you think is going to happen, when you are in a boat, you never ought
+to start up. Even if there were any real danger, a little boy like you
+could not do any good by standing up. You would only run the risk of
+being jerked out into the sea. Always sit quite still upon your seat."</p>
+
+<p>"I should not like to be jerked out," said Willie gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"No, because you might be drowned. So long as you sit still, there is
+little danger of such a thing. But suppose that every time the boat
+gave a roll, mamma and nurse and Lucy and I were all to jump up and run
+to the side of the boat. Why, it would be almost certain to turn over,
+and we might all be drowned. It would not be the first time that such a
+thing has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try and not forget," said Willie, looking sober. "I don't mind
+the little waves now, mamma. And Lucy isn't afraid of them either. She
+was a great deal more afraid of the tunnel."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope neither of you will mind the tunnel when we go home the day
+after to-morrow," said Mrs. Gray, smiling. "I expect to see two such
+brave children."</p>
+
+<p>They stayed on the water for nearly two hours, when Mr. Gray thought
+they had had enough, so they went home. Willie was sorry to think the
+nice row was over, but he was glad he had been on the sea. He told
+nurse he meant to be a sailor some day, but nurse laughed, and said he
+would most likely change his mind a dozen times before then.</p>
+
+<p>Willie and Lucy had a very pleasant time at the sea-side, but now that
+it was all over, they were not at all sorry to return home. Lucy wanted
+to see her pretty pussy and all her dolls again, and Willie longed for
+his garden, and his little dog, and his rabbits. So when the morning
+came to leave, instead of looking grave, they were as merry as they
+could be.</p>
+
+<p>One thing Willie was quite sure of, and that was that he would never
+forget this pleasant visit to the sea-side. The bright sandy shore, the
+blue ripples, the angry waves, the row in the boat, the rides on the
+donkeys, the visit to the rocks; all, in short, that he had seen, were
+still fresh in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Let us hope that he never thought of the wonders of the sea without
+thinking also of God who made them all. Willie was a very little boy,
+but he was not too little to be one of Jesus Christ's lambs, and to
+love to think about God in all His works.</p>
+
+<p>Children much younger than Willie have been led to seek their Saviour,
+and have known something of the sin of their own hearts, and of the
+love and mercy of God. The child who reads this story is not too small
+to follow Jesus, to love him, to believe in him, and to honour him. He
+has promised that all who seek him early shall find him, and every year
+it is put off it becomes less easy.</p>
+
+<p>Little child, will not you pray to Jesus to make you one of his
+children, to take away your sinful stony heart, and to give you a heart
+of flesh? Will you not strive to follow him, to obey his commands, and
+to grow more like him every day of your life? You cannot do this in
+your own strength. But Jesus is always ready to help those who humbly
+ask him. And when you are one of the Good Shepherd's flock, then both
+in life and death you will be safe and happy.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET<br>
+AND CHARING CROSS<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77801 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77801
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77801)