Alice and Beatrice

								

sea-shore.
At last grandmamma said, ‘Now you have been very good children; run
upstairs, and ask Mary to dress you.’
Alice and Beatrice ran upstairs; and whilst Mary was taking out their
hats and jackets, they both sat down on the carpet and pulled off their
shoes, and put on their thick boots, and stood very quiet when Mary
buttoned their little white jackets and tied on their hats.
‘I will put your cloaks with your grandmamma’s,’ said Mary, ‘because it
will be cold when you come back.’
‘Cold!’ cried Alice, ‘this hot day. Oh, Mary, we cannot want our
cloaks!’
‘On the sea it is often cold, Miss Alice; and it may be late when you
return,’ added Mary.
The three cloaks were put together, and the children were glad to see
that Mary was to come with them in the boat.
When they came to the shore, there was John Bartlett waiting for them,
and a very nice large boat, half on the sand and half in the water, and
there was another sailor there, and a little boy.
Little Beatrice said, ‘Grandmamma, that is Jack; I know Jack, he brings
us nice shrimps for our tea; don’t you Jack?’ and the boy smiled. ‘I am
so glad that Jack is going with us.’
The sea was very smooth, and the tide was neither high nor low, and
there were no waves.
The children were lifted into the boat, after grandmamma and Mary had
walked along a sloping plank into it, and had seated themselves at the
end, where there were cushions, and Alice and Beatrice sat on the
cushions on each side of their grandmamma.
Bartlett and the little boy jumped into the boat; and the other man
first pushed the boat deeper into the sea, going into the water himself,
and then climbed into the boat; and Bartlett and his boy, each with an
oar, rowed a little till they were away from the shore, and the boat
tossed up and down, and Alice and Beatrice came close to grandmamma and
looked afraid.
Grandmamma then took Beatrice on her lap, and said—
‘A boat always rocks up and down at first; as soon as the sails are up,
it will be much quieter.’
So they did not cry; but Beatrice said, ‘I should like to go back best.’
‘May we go back?’ asked Alice.
‘No, dear children, you must wait a little, and then I think that you
will like the boat very much. Look at little Jack Bartlett, how he helps
his father to unroll the sail and to pull the ropes.’
The children looked, and saw the sailor and his boy unroll a large piece
of cloth; they knew that it was a sail, and they saw the men pull it up
a high pole, which Alice told her sister was called a mast. The sail was
red, and had a little hole in it. The wind blew upon the sail and made
it straight; then the two men put up another sail, and little Jack came
to sit near grandmamma, at her end of the boat.
There was so much to look at, that the children soon forgot their fear,
and Alice asked—
‘What is Jack doing at our end of the boat?’