The Iceberg Express
by David Cory




The Magic Comb




One bright morning in August little Mary Louise put on her hat and went
trudging across the meadow to the beach.

It was the first time she had been trusted out alone since the family
had moved to the seashore for the summer; for Mary Louise was a little
girl, nothing about her was large, except her round gray eyes.

There was a pale mist on the far-off sea, and up around the sun were
white clouds edged with the hues of pinks and violets. The tide was
coming in, and the waves, little at first, but growing larger every
moment, were crowding up, along the sand and pebbles, laughing,
winking and whispering, as they tumbled over each other, like thousands
of children hurrying home from school.

Who was down there under the blue water, with the hoarse, hollow voice,
urging and pushing them across the beach to her feet? And what was
there beneath the sea, and beyond the sea, so deep, so broad and so
dim, away off where the white ships, that looked smaller than seabirds,
were gliding out and in?