carefully the heaped mounds of shells, mostly broken, for the "legs of
mutton" that meant to them love and long life and prosperity. They chose
out for luck also the smooth little rose-tinted valves, more exquisite
than the fairest lady's finger-nails.

Next they found the spring welling up from an over-flow mound which it
had built for itself in the ages it had run untended. Little throbbing
grains of sand dimpled in it, and the mound was green to the top; so
that Simeon and Anna could sit, one on one side and the other upon the
other, and with a farle of cake eat and drink, passing from hand to hand
alternate, talking all the time.

It was a divine meal.

"This is better than having to go to church!" said Anna.

Simeon stared at her. This was not the Sabbath or a Fast-day. What a
day, then, to be speaking about church-going! It was bad enough to have
to face the matter when it came.

"I wonder what we should do if the Great Auk were suddenly to fly out of
the rocks up there, and fall splash into the sea," he said, to change
the subject.

"The Great Auk does not fly," said positive Anna, who had been reading
up.

"What does it do, then?" said Simeon. "No wonder it got killed!"

"It could only waddle and swim," replied Anna.