tly at eight o'clock,
it became her to be diligent if she wished to do anything for her own
amusement before that hour.

And in the next room, cold and still, was lying that faded image of
youth and beauty which the sea had so strangely given up. Without a
name, without a history, without a single accompaniment from which her
past could even be surmised,--there she lay, sealed in eternal silence.

"It's strange," said Captain Kittridge, as he whittled away,--"it's very
strange we don't find anything more of that ar ship. I've been all up
and down the beach a-lookin'. There was a spar and some broken bits of
boards and timbers come ashore down on the beach, but nothin' to speak
of."

"It won't be known till the sea gives up its dead," said Miss Roxy,
shaking her head solemnly, "and there'll be a great givin' up then, I'm
a-thinkin'."

"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Kittridge, with an emphatic nod.

"Father," said Sally, "how many, many things there must be at the bottom
of the sea,--so many ships are sunk with all their fine things on board.
Why don't people contrive some way to go down and get them?"

"They do, child," said Captain Kittridge; "they have diving-bells, and
men go down in 'em with caps over their faces, and long tubes to get the
air through, and they walk about on the bottom of the ocean."

"Did you ever go down in one, father?"

"Why, yes, child, to be sure; and strange enough it was, to be sure.
There you could see great big sea critters, with ever so many eyes and
long arms, swimming right up to catch you, and all you could do would be
to muddy the water on the bottom, so they couldn't see you."

"I never heard of that, Cap'n Kittridge," said his wife, drawing herself
up with a reproving coolness.

"Wal', Mis' Kittridge, you hain't heard of everything that ever
happened," said the Captain, imperturbably, "though you _do_ know a
sight."

"And how does the bottom of the ocean look, father?" said Sally.

"Laws, child, why trees and bushes grow there, just as they do on land;
and great plants,--blue and purple and green and yellow, and lots of
great pearls lie round. I've seen 'em big as chippin'-birds' eggs."

"Cap'n Kittridge!" said his wife.

"I have, and big as robins' eggs, too, but them was off the coast of
Ceylon and Malabar, and way round the Equator," said the Captain,
prudently resolved to throw his romance to a sufficient distance.

"It's a pity you didn't get a few of them pearls," s