sea-serpent. Mr. Juxon said it was not like anything in the world. Do
listen, mamma! It is the most wonderful story you ever heard. It was
all covered with blue and green scales, and it rolled, and rolled, and
rolled, and rolled, till at last it rolled up against the side of the
ship with such a tremendous bump that Mr. Juxon fell right down on his
back."

"Yes dear," said Mrs. Goddard mechanically, as the child paused.

"You don't seem to mind at all!" cried Nellie, who felt that her efforts
to amuse her mother were not properly appreciated. "He fell right down on
his back and hurt himself awfully."

"That was very sad," said Mrs. Goddard. "Did he catch the sea-serpent
afterwards ?"

"Catch the sea-serpent! Why mamma, don't you know that nobody has ever
caught the sea-serpent? Why, hardly anybody has ever seen him, even!"

"Yes dear, but I thought Mr. Juxon--"

"Of course, Mr. Juxon is the most wonderful man--but he could not catch
the sea-serpent. Just fancy! When he got up from his fall, he looked and
he saw him quite half a mile away. He must have gone awfully fast, should
not you think so? Because, you know, it was only a minute."

"Yes, my child; and it is a beautiful story, and you told it so nicely.
It is very interesting and you must tell me another to-morrow. But now,
dear, you must really go to bed, because I am going to bed, too. That man
startled me so," she said, passing her small white hand over her pale
forehead and then staring into the fire.

"Well, I don't wonder," answered Nellie in a patronising tone. "Such a
dreadful night too! Of course, it would startle anybody. But he won't try
again, and you can scold Mary to-morrow and then she can scold her young
man."

The child spoke so naturally that all doubts vanished from Mrs. Goddard's
mind. She reflected that children are much more apt to see things as they
are, than grown people whose nerves are out of order. Nellie's
conclusions were perfectly logical, and it seemed folly to doubt them.
She determined that Mary should certainly be scolded on the morrow and
she unconsciously resolved in her mind the words she should use; for she
was rather a timid woman and stood a little in awe of her stalwart
Berkshire cook, with her mighty arms and her red face, and her uncommonly
plain language.

"Yes dear," she said more quietly than she had been able to speak for
some time, "I have no doubt you are quite right. I thought I heard his
footsteps just