"How I wish he were home again from his old ship," sighed Aralia, "and
Tom with him!"

"Well, Ara, we can sit here hours and hours every day and watch the sea,
can't we?"

"Yes, and we shall easily know the ship. As she goes by, shell set all
her flags a-flying, and, if Father isn't at home, Mother will send up our
great red flag on the garden pole. Oh dear! I could nearly cry for joy to
think of it!"

"And me too!" said Pansy.

"And me too!" Veevee seemed to say, as he gave a short bark, and, jumping
down from the seat, ran round the garden, looking like a fluffy white
ball.

The sea was very blue, only patched with green wherever a cloud-shadow
fell on it. Down beneath the cliff on which the cottage stood, the waves
broke lazily in long white lines of foam. On the sea itself were vessels
of almost every kind, from the little fishing craft with brown sails to
great ships sailing away to distant lands.

Aralia knew what class of vessel each was by its rig; her best of uncles
had taught her. And well could she use the spy-glass too, which she now
held to her right eye. It had been hard at first to keep the left closed,
but she could manage it now quite easily without asking Pansy to clap a
hand over it.

Soon she began to talk in little gasps: