some
day, before I knew about her own family and her Camp Fire group. Now I
realize that she only intends helping me to help myself, as the highly
moral phrase goes."

"But haven't you any people of your own, or any close friends?" Sally
demanded with the persistency which belonged to her disposition. Half a
dozen times before she had asked this same question without receiving a
satisfactory reply.

Gerry only laughed good naturedly. Sally's curiosity amused her.

"_No_ people and _no_ friends I care to talk about, my dear. You know I
have told you this several times before."

In spite of the fact that by this time the girls had walked for three or
four miles, up until now Gerry had not suggested sitting down to begin
her sketching. At this moment she moved over to the edge of a cliff,
glancing down at the beach below.

"Come, Sally, see what a fascinating place I have discovered. Suppose we
climb down to the beach; you must be tired and I may be able to work for
a little while. I do want to have something to show Mrs. Burton as a
result of our day."

On the beach the girls saw a little wooden hut with a huge kettle filled
with boiling water standing before the door. Half a mile or more out in
the ocean two Japanese fishermen were diving for the famous abalone
shells, while on the sands a dozen of the shells, having been thoroughly
cleansed, now lay drying in the sun; their inner surfaces of
mother-of-pearl held all the colors of the dawn.

CHAPTER VI

"My Own Will Come to Me"

Whether consciously or unconsciously, the thing we most desire in this
world will come to us in the end.

Rather precipitately Sally and Gerry climbed down the side of the cliff
to the beach. The way was steep and now and then Sally had to be
encouraged and assisted until both girls finally arrived on the sands a
little out of breath.

The beach stretched on further than one could see, a pale golden carpet
now that the mists were clearing. It was divided at this point by a
narrow gully. On one side of the gully were uneven platforms of rocks
and between these rocks ran little streams of salt water from the ocean,
creating tiny tidal lakes and rivulets.

Up and down these rocks, sometimes disappearing inside the water, at
others clinging perilously above its edge, or hiding behind sprays of
sea lichen or fern, were innumerable small sea monsters. At times the
sides of the rocks were alive with hundreds, even thousands, of t