Alice and Beatrice

								


              THINGS EASY

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CHAPTER I.



     VISIT TO GRANDMAMMA—WALKS TO THE SEA-SHORE—BATHING IN THE SEA.

ALICE and Beatrice were two little girls of about four and six years of
age. They were staying with their grandmamma. Alice and Beatrice were
very glad to be with their grandmamma, for she lived in the country and
near the sea. They liked to see the green fields, full of pretty
flowers, and to play in the nice large garden, and to walk up and down
the high hills that were on all sides of the house, and also they liked
to go to the sea-shore and look on the wide sea.
Grandmamma loved Alice and Beatrice very much, and she liked to have
them with her, and she tried to make them good and happy. Every morning
they said their prayers to her, and every evening before they went to
bed; and they never forgot to thank God, who had taken care of them
during the night, and to beg God to bless and take care of them, and all
those they loved, that day and always. Little Beatrice could not say her
prayers quite so well as Alice, but she said them better and better
every day.
After breakfast grandmamma had to order the dinner, and whilst she went
to the kitchen to speak to the cook, she let the two little girls run up
and down the long verandah which was in front of the house, and which
led to the pretty garden.
Alice read to her grandmamma, learned by heart and said some verses from
her hymnbook, and little Beatrice always learned one verse every day.
Then Alice did some sums, and after she had shown them, and grandmamma
had found them all right, Alice wrote her copy. As soon as Alice began
to write, Beatrice brought her letters and tried to learn to know them.
Grandmamma told her when she knew them all she would give her a book
with large letters and words.
After the lessons were over, the little girls went out for a walk with
Mary.
Mary was a kind person and very fond of the two children, and they liked
Mary very much. Mary went with Alice and Beatrice down the sloping
walks, till they came to a gate, which they opened; they then went
across a little wooden bridge, and down a very steep path and some steps
that led to the sea-shore.
Alice and Beatrice liked to go to the sea-shore very much. Mary sat on
the sand and worked, whilst Alice and Beatrice played about. They had
each of them a pretty wooden basket and a little wooden spade, and they
dug in the sand on the sea-shore, and filled their baskets with sand or
stones. Sometimes they dug large holes for the sea to come in, and they
liked to see the waves come higher and higher, till the large holes were
full of water. Sometimes Alice and Beatrice dug a long ditch down the
sloping shore to the edge of the waves, and the water ran down it into
the sea, and they called it their river. When they were tired of