lda, who would have liked
to follow him through thick and thin, but the sailors drew the line at
little girls, and would politely request "missy" to "return home to her
ma," as there was no place for her "on this 'ere craft," much to her
indignation. She consoled herself, however, by organizing the games of
the younger Wrights and Rokebys, making wonderful sand harbours with
their aid, and sailing a fleet of toy boats with as keen an enthusiasm
as if they were real ones.

At the end of a morning on the common Isobel found herself on quite an
intimate footing with the Wrights, the Rokebys, the Barringtons, and the
Chesters, besides being a duly elected member of "The United Sea
Urchins' Recreation Society."

"I've never had such fun in my life," she confided to her mother at
dinner-time. "We played cricket, and then we went along the shore,
because the tide was so low. I picked up the most beautiful screw
shells, and razor shells, and fan shells you ever saw. I had to put them
in my pocket handkerchief because I hadn't a basket with me. Bertie
Rokeby got into a quicksand up to his knees, and Lulu sat down in the
water in her clothes. You must come and see our club ground, mother,
when you can walk so far. We have it quite to ourselves, for it's right
behind the cliff, and none of the other visitors seem to have found it
out yet; and if anybody else tries to take it, the boys say they mean to
turn them off, because we got it first. They're all going to carry their
tea there this afternoon, and light a fire of drift-wood to boil the
kettle. So may I go too, and then we shall play cricket again in the
evening?"

CHAPTER V

A HOT FRIENDSHIP.

"I was a child, and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea."

By the time Isobel had been a week at Silversands she had begun to feel
as much at home there as the oldest inhabitant. She had won golden
opinions from Mrs. Jackson at the lodgings, and had been invited by that
worthy woman into the upper drawing-room during the temporary absence of
its occupiers, and shown a most fascinating cabinet full of foreign
shells, stuffed birds, corals, ivory bangles, sandal-wood boxes, and
other curiosities brought home by a sailor son who made many voyages to
the East.

"Don't you wish you could have gone with him and got all these things
for yourself?" said Isobel ecstatically, when she had examined and
admired every article separately, and heard its history.

"