deep water; but opposite the cottage, declined with a sloping, grassy
descent. A winding track led down to the village, which nestled in a
hollow, with steep footpaths radiating from it. In front of it, lower
still, lay the narrow beach, narrow even at low water, for the steep,
rocky shore went steep and rocky down into the abyss. A thousand
fantastic rocks stood between land and water; amidst which, at half-tide,
were many little rocky arbours, with floors of sunny sand, and three or
four feet of water. Here you might bathe, or sit on the ledges with your
feet in the water, medicated with the restless glitter and bewilderment of
a half-dissolved sunbeam.

"A promontory, curving out into the sea, on the right, formed a bay and
natural harbour, from which, towards the setting sun, many fishing-boats
were diverging into the wide sea, as the children, stiff and weary, were
getting out of the cart. Herbert's fatigue was soon forgotten in watching
their brown-dyed sails, glowing almost red in the sunset, as they went out
far into the dark, hunters of the deep, to spend the night on the waters.

"From the windows, the children could not see the shore, with all its
burst of beauties struck out from the meeting of things unlike; for it lay
far down, and the brow of the hill rose between it and them; only they
knew that below the waves were breaking on the rocks, and they heard the
gush and roar filling all the air. The room in which Herbert slept was a
little attic, with a window towards the sea. After gazing with unutterable
delight on the boundless water, which lay like a condensed sky in the grey
light of the sleeping day (for there is no night at this season in the
North), till he saw it even when his eyelids closed from weariness, he lay
down, and the monotonous lullaby of the sea mingled with his dreams.

"Next morning he was wakened by the challenging and replying of the