The First Day At The Sea

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Title:     The First Day At The Sea
Author: Harriet Myrtle [More Titles by Myrtle]

"Ramsgate! Ramsgate!" was called by the man at the station, as the train stopped.

"Ramsgate!" repeated a little boy in one of the carriages, waking up out of a sound sleep.

"Why, Johnny, you have been asleep," said his elder sister Helen; "and Louisa asleep too! Wake up. We are at Ramsgate."

"Where's the sea?" said Johnny, rubbing his eyes.

"It is now quite dark," answered his papa, who was already out of the carriage. "Nothing can be seen till to-morrow. Make haste, little Johnny: I will carry you."

In a minute Johnny was seated in a fly, his sisters beside him, then their mama and their papa on the box. Joseph the groom was seeing the luggage put on a truck; the bell rang, the engine began to puff and blow like some great animal preparing to start off again with his load, and away went the train.

"Where are Neptune and Spot?" asked Louisa, putting her head out at the window.

"I hear them barking. Joseph has got them safe out of the train," answered her papa, as they began to move on.

This family came from Warwickshire, which is a long way from the coast, and the children had never yet even had a sight of the sea. They looked out on both sides as they drove along, but in vain; the night was very dark, and they could see nothing. They heard, however, a grand sound, such as they had never heard before, which their mama told them was the sound of the waves; and the air felt very fresh. They presently stopped at a door, which was quickly opened and they got out. It was very nice to go up an unknown staircase, to peep into a strange drawing-room, then to go up to the bed-rooms, where everything was new to them. They thought the beds and curtains very white and clean, and were very glad to see their nurse again, who had gone on a day before them, and had everything ready; and as it was too dark to see out of the windows, they began to long for nothing so much as to lie down in the comfortable white beds; so, before half an hour was over, all three were fast asleep.

Hour after hour passed, while kind sleep was changing them from wearied travellers into active, merry children once more; but they knew nothing of this time. It seemed to them like the next minute that they heard a voice say--"Who wants to look at the sea?" and saw their mama standing in the room, dressed and ready to go out. It was seven o'clock in the morning, and the bright sun was shining on the windows. In a minute Johnny was in her arms, Helen and Louisa by her side, and she took them to the window and drew up the blind.

There lay the beautiful sea before them, under the blue morning sky, sparkling in the sun, the waves gently breaking on the yellow sands. Two fine large ships, with their white sails set, were passing near the shore, and many more in the distance. A steamer was going in the opposite direction. A whole fleet of fishing-boats were coming in towards the harbour, after being out all night. Beyond all, on both sides, and onward as far as the eye could reach, stretched the blue sea, till it met the sky. The children had longed to see it, had wondered what it would be like, had expected it would be beautiful, but it was far greater and more beautiful than they had imagined. They would never forget that first sight of it.

"Make haste and come out to bathe," said their mama.

Very quickly they were dressed, and enjoyed all the delights of choosing a machine, plunging into the refreshing water, dancing and splashing in it, coming out at last to be dried and dressed, meeting their papa on the sands when they came out of the machine, having a good run with him, clambering over some slippery sea-weedy rocks, peeping into a cave in the white cliff, and then going in to breakfast very hungry, and sitting round the table, drawn so near the bow window that they could look out and see what was going on all the time.

The sea was always taking some new and lovely colour; the two ships had sailed out of sight, but three others had come; the tide was rising, and the line of white waves came nearer and nearer; rowing boats and sailing-boats were scudding this way and that on the sunny water; the steamer for London, which had just started from the pier, passed rapidly across. Then there were donkeys trotting and cantering up and down the sands, with boys and girls on them. In short, it all looked so delightful, that breakfast had hardly been cleared away when their mama told them to get ready and she would take them to spend the whole morning on the sands.

They were not long about getting ready, and went down the cliff by a long wooden staircase. As soon as they got upon the sands they ran to the edge of the sea, stopping only a minute to look at some children who were digging with wooden spades. Neptune and Spot had come out with them, and rushed about barking with joy.

"How nice it is to stand quite near, and have to run hack when the next wave comes!" cried Johnny.

"Ah, master Johnny, if you stand so near as that, you will be caught and get wet presently," cried Louisa.

Neptune came bounding past as they spoke, and swam out; they could only see his head bobbing over the waves. He seemed to enjoy it very much; but foolish little Spot could not go out: he only stayed barking by Johnny's side, and when the waves broke on the sands and came hissing up he ran back too. Helen and Louisa were amusing themselves with digging hollows with their hands, and seeing them filled with water, and changed into little ponds, and then covered entirely and lost, one after another, in the great sea.

"Oh Johnny run! run!--what a great wave!" cried Helen.

He ran with all his might, but it was in vain. The wave was too fast for him, and he got wet up to his knees. Neptune swam out at the same time, and shook the water out of his long hair all over him.

"We must go in for dry socks and shoes," said his mama. "But we need not be long about it. As to Neptune's contribution, I can rub that away with my handkerchief."

They went in, but soon got all put to rights and came out again. Passing on towards the stairs they came to a toy-shop, and stopped to look at the things.

"Those wooden spades are exactly like what the boys were digging with," said Johnny. "Will you buy us one, mama?"

She answered by going into the shop and telling him to choose one, and greatly added to his pleasure by telling Louisa to choose one also.

"May Helen have one too?" said Louisa.

"I am afraid she is too old for a wooden spade," replied her mama, smiling.

But Helen declared she was not at all too old, and the shopman said he often sold spades to young ladies of her age; so she also had one, and all three sallied forth, and went down to the cliff in great glee. They began to dig as soon as they reached the hard sands. At first they only dug holes; but after a while Helen proposed that they should make a house standing in a garden, with a wall round it. She was to build the house, while Louisa and Johnny made the wall of round white stones, of which they found plenty. They drew a line to shew the boundary, and fixed a row of stones in it. The sand Helen dug out to build the house left a hollow, which they decided should be a pond in the garden, and they planned several walks and a grass-plot, on which they determined to lay green sea-weed, such as they had seen on the rocks.

"How pretty a grotto would look in one corner!" said Louisa.

Both the others thought so too; they therefore left their work, and began to look for shells.

"I have found a lovely little yellow one," cried Helen.

"So have I, and a black one," said Johnny.

Louisa also found a few; but, after searching some time, they had only collected a small number, and these nearly all yellow; so they gathered round their mama, who was all this time sitting reading on a block of wood, with Neptune and Spot by her side, and asked her what they should do for shells. The house, they declared, would be nothing without the pretty grotto, and they could scarcely find any.

Just at that moment there came towards them a boy who carried a flat board slung round his neck covered with beautiful large shells; he came up to their mama, asking her to buy some.

"O how lovely!" cried Helen.

"But they are too large for the grotto," said Johnny.

The boy said he had plenty of smaller ones, which he sold by the pint; and, setting down his board, he took a canvas bag out of his pocket, which was full of all sorts of common shells, white, yellow, pink, and black. These were exactly what the children wanted, and their mama bought a pint for them.

"But where do you find all these?" asked Helen. "We could see none almost, but a few little yellow ones."

The boy said he came from Pegwell Bay, where there were numbers of them; but he added, he did not find the large ones there. They came from foreign parts, and were brought home by his father, who was a sailor. "Would not the lady please to take one?" he said. He had slung on his board again, and held one in his hand towards her as he spoke. She bought two, and gave him the price he asked; and, after thanking her, he went on.

The grotto was now commenced in good earnest. A layer of stones was first put down, and then the shells raised on it, the largest at the bottom. It took a good while to sort them into different sizes and colours, and then to produce the proper effect by arranging them well. At last, nearly the whole collection had been used up, and the grotto was rising to a peak at the top, when they were startled by a most unexpected event. A wave, pushing on before its companions, sent a pointed flood of water into the midst of their garden, and, rolling back, left their pond full. They had not observed, in their eagerness over their work, that the tide had risen fast, and that their house and garden now stood at the very edge of the sea. They started up; but, while they stood staring in consternation, on came another wave, swept away the grotto, and carried the shells back with it. Scarcely, however, was there time to feel the misfortune, when another, rolling on, brought them back, and laid them at their feet.

"Save the shells,--pick them up,--mama, come and help us!" was shouted by all three, while each gathered up as many as the returning waves would leave time for. Their mama had been so much engaged with her book, that she had not observed what was going on; but she came quickly and helped as well as she could. She was obliged, however, to prevent Louisa and Johnny from attempting to save as many as they wished, lest they should be carried away themselves. By great exertions, and at the cost of getting their shoes full of water, they collected a good many; the two dogs came and barked and rushed about as if they wished to help, but did little else except splashing everybody with salt water. When the hurry was over, Johnny began to look very sad, and Louisa could hardly help crying. Fortunately the spades were safe; Helen had thrown them as far away as she could at the first appearance of danger, and they lay on the dry sand; as to the house and garden, it had vanished for ever.

They turned homewards, for it was time for dinner; when they got in, nurse said, she did not know what was to be done for shoes and stockings if they went on in this way; but they told her they should be wiser soon, when they began to understand the ways of the sea. At dinner they related all the adventure to their papa, who advised them to measure their shells and see how many they had saved. They got a pint jug for the purpose, and found that they had not saved above half their stock.

"Suppose," said he, "that we were all to go to Pegwell Bay in a sailing boat this afternoon, and you were to pick up shells for yourselves?"

Great joy was shewn at this proposal. To go out in a boat was pleasure enough of itself, and to gather shells was equally delightful; so they were soon ready, and went to the pier, where they found plenty of boats.

The boats were very pretty, painted of different colours, with gay little flags, and all had names; and as the children looked down at them they began to choose which they should like best. "The Sea-flower" was a pretty name; but then, the "Water-witch" was such bright green and white; the "Sally" did not please them at all,--they would have liked to go in the "Victoria;" but the "Princess Royal" was so pretty altogether, both name, colour, and flag,--for it was painted light cane-colour, with a little black about it, and had a sky-blue flag, and the whitest possible sails,--that they fixed upon it.

They had a delightful sail. There was sufficient breeze to make their boat go dancing over the water, and yet it was warm and pleasant. It was great fun to land at Pegwell Bay, and to scatter over the beach picking up shells; and they found numbers,--in some places the whole beach seemed composed of them. When at last their papa called them to go back to the boat, they found they had filled all the little baskets they brought. As they walked along they passed a row of cottages, and, at the door of one of them, saw the boy standing of whom they had bought the shells in the morning. There was a nice fire in the room of the cottage, and his mother was getting tea ready. They stopped and spoke to him, and shewed him their shells, and their papa thought some of the large ones he saw on the board, that now stood on a table, so beautiful, that he bought six of them, which seemed to please the boy very much.

The sun was setting behind Ramsgate when they reached the pier, and a golden light was spread over everything, while the sea looked dark-violet colour; and it was difficult to say whether it looked most beautiful now, or when they saw it first, under the blue morning sky, or afterwards in the many changes that came over it during their happy visit to Ramsgate.

[The end]
Harriet Myrtle's short story: First Day At The Sea

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