Beaches."

"Has any one been there?" asked Anna.

"Fishers have looked into them from the sea. No one has been in!" said
Simeon briefly.

The tops of the Stack of Canna were curiously white, and Simeon watched
the effect over his shoulder as he rowed.

"Look at the Stack," he said, and the eyes of his companion followed
his.

"Is it snow?" she asked.

"No; birds--thousands of them. They are nesting. Let us land and get a
boat-load to take back."

But Anna declared that it must not be so. They had come out to hunt the
Great Auk, and no meaner bird would they pursue that day.

Nevertheless, they landed, and made spectacles of themselves by groping
in the clay soil on the top of the Stack for Petrels' eggs. But they
could not dig far enough without spades to get many, and when they did
get to the nest, it was hardly worth taking for the sake of the one
white egg and the little splattering, oily inmate.

Yet on the wild sea-cinctured Stack, and in that young fresh morning,
the children tasted the joy of life; and only the fascinating vision of
the unknown habitant of the Glistering Beaches had power to wile them