n as we lift our
feet. In some spots the sand receives a complete impression of the
sole, square toe and all; elsewhere it is of such marble firmness that
we must stamp heavily to leave a print even of the iron-shod heel.
Along the whole of this extensive beach gambols the surf-wave. Now it
makes a feint of dashing onward in a fury, yet dies away with a meek
murmur and does but kiss the strand; now, after many such abortive
efforts, it rears itself up in an unbroken line, heightening as it
advances, without a speck of foam on its green crest. With how fierce
a roar it flings itself forward and rushes far up the beach!

As I threw my eyes along the edge of the surf I remember that I was
startled, as Robinson Crusoe might have been, by the sense that human
life was within the magic circle of my solitude. Afar off in the
remote distance of the beach, appearing like sea-nymphs, or some
airier things such as might tread upon the feathery spray, was a group
of girls. Hardly had I beheld them, when they passed into the shadow
of the rocks and vanished. To comfort myself--for truly I would fain
have gazed a while longer--I made acquaintance with a flock of
beach-birds. These little citizens of the sea and air preceded me by
about a stone's-throw along the strand, seeking, I suppose, for food
upon its margin. Yet, with a philosophy which mankind would do well to
imitate, they drew a continual pleasure from their toil for a
subsistence. The sea was each little bird's great playmate. They
chased it downward as it swept back, and again ran up swiftly before
the impending wave, which sometimes overtook them and bore them off
their feet. But they floated as lightly as one of their own feathers
on the breaking crest. In their airy flutterings they seemed to rest
on the evanescent spray. Their images--long-legged little figures with
gray backs and snowy bosoms--were seen as distinctly as the realities
in the mirror of the glistening strand. As I advanced they flew a
score or two of yards, and, again alighting, recommenced their
dalliance with the surf-wave; and thus they bore me company along the
beach, the types of pleasant fantasies, till at its extremity they
took wing over the ocean and were gone. After forming a friendship
with these small surf-spirits, it is really worth a sigh to find no
memorial of them save their multitudinous little tracks in the sand.

When we have paced the length of the beach, it is pleasant and not
unpr