leepiness vanished, for life
seemed suddenly very pleasant and interesting, and full of things to do,
and see, and think about.

Presently the clock in the church-tower struck seven. "Only seven!
Then I've got another hour before I need get up! But I'll just have a
look out to see what it all looks like. How funny it seems to be back
again!" She slipped out of bed and across the floor to draw back the
curtains. Outside the narrow street stretched sunny and deserted.
The garden, drenched with dew, was bathed in sunshine too. But it was not
on the garden or the street that her eyes lingered, but on the sea beyond
the low stone wall on the opposite side of the way. Deep blue it
stretched, its bosom gently heaving, blue as the sky above, and the jewels
with which its bosom was decked flashed and sparkled in the morning
sunshine.

"Oh-h-h!" gasped Mona. "Oh-h-h! I don't know how anyone can ever live
away from the sea!"

In spite of the sun, though, the morning was cold, with a touch of frost
in the air which nipped Mona's toes, and sent her scuttling back to her
bed again. She remembered, joyfully, from the old days, that if she
propped herself up a little she could see the sea from her bed.
So she lay with her pillow doubled up under her head, and the bedclothes
drawn up to her chin, and gazed and gazed at the sea and sky, until
presently she was on the sea, in a boat, floating through waves covered
with diamonds, and the diamonds came pattering against the sides of the
boat, as though inviting her to put out her hands and gather them up,
and so become rich for ever. Strangely enough, though, she did not heed,
or care for them. All she wanted was a big bunch of the forget-me-nots
which grew on the opposite shore, and she rowed and rowed, with might and
main, to reach the forget-me-nots, and she put up a sail and flew before
the wind, yet no nearer could she get to the patch of blue and green.

"But I can smell them!" she cried. "I can smell them!" and then
remembered that forget-me-nots had no scent and realised that the scent
was that of the wallflowers growing in her own garden; and suddenly all
the spirit went out of her, for she did not care for what she could reach,
but only for the unattainable; and the oars dropped out of her hands, and
the diamonds no longer tapped against the boat, for the boat was still,
and Mona sat in it disappointed and sullen. The sun went in too,
and nothing was the same but