there were very seldom any
passengers. The great house was out of repair: people would not live
there, for they said it was haunted. Oh, yes! he had heard of Lady
Ferry. She had lived to be very ancient; but she was dead.

"Yes," said I, "she is dead."

[Illustration: decoration]

[Illustration: decoration]

A BIT OF SHORE LIFE.

I often think of a boy with whom I made friends last summer, during
some idle, pleasant days that I spent by the sea. I was almost always
out of doors, and I used to watch the boats go out and come in; and I
had a hearty liking for the good-natured fishermen, who were lazy and
busy by turns, who waited for the wind to change, and waited for the
tide to turn, and waited for the fish to bite, and were always ready to
gossip about the weather, and the fish, and the wonderful events that
had befallen them and their friends.

Georgie was the only boy of whom I ever saw much at the shore. The few
young people living there all went to school through the hot summer
days at a little weather-beaten schoolhouse a mile or two inland.
There were few houses to be seen, at any rate, and Georgie's house was
the only one so close to the water. He looked already nothing but a
fisherman; his clothes were covered with an oil-skin suit, which had
evidently been awkwardly cut down for him from one of his father's, of
whom he was a curious little likeness. I could hardly believe that he
was twelve years old, he was so stunted and small; yet he was a strong
little fellow; his hands were horny and hard from handling the clumsy
oars, and his face was so brown and dry from the hot sun and chilly
spray, that he looked even older when one came close to him. The first
time I saw him was one evening just at night fall. I was sitting on
the pebbles, and he came down from the fish-house with some
lobster-nets, and a bucket with some pieces of fish in it for bait, and
put them into the stern of one of the boats which lay just at the edge
of the rising tide. He looked at the clouds over the sea, and at the
open sky overhead, in an old wise way, and then, as if satisfied with
the weather, began to push off his boat. It dragged on the pebbles; it
was a heavy thing, and he could not get it far enough out to be floated
by the low waves, so I went down to help him. He looked amazed that a
girl should have thought of it, and as if he wished to ask me what good
I supposed I could do, though I was twice h