Only Thomasina and her brother had not had a tiresome journey—and there were no nasty, stuffy lodgings for them, and no tea with oily butter and a new pot of marmalade.
“There’s silver-sand,” said she—“miles of it.”
“And yet it’s nice and warm too,” said Selim.
“And here’s a dog, to go after sticks. Here, Rover, Rover.”
A big black dog answered at once to the name, because he was a retriever, and they are all called Rover.
“And what pretty sea-poppies,” said the girl.
“And a basket—and grub in it!” said the boy. So they sat down and had lunch.
It was a lovely lunch. Lobsters and ice-creams (strawberry and pine-apple), and toffee and hot buttered toast and ginger-beer. They ate and ate, and thought of the aunt and uncle at home, and the minced veal and sago pudding, and they were very happy indeed.
Just as they were finishing their lunch they saw a swirling, swishing, splashing commotion in the green sea a little way off, and they tore off their clothes and rushed into the water to see what it was. It was a seal. He was very kind and convenient. He showed them how to swim and dive.
“But won’t it make us ill to bathe so soon after meals? Isn’t it wrong?” asked Thomasina.
[Illustration: THE SEAL WAS VERY KIND AND CONVENIENT.]
“Not at all,” said the seal. “Nothing is wrong here—as long as you’re good. Let me teach you water-leapfrog—a most glorious game, so cool, yet so exciting. You try it.”
At last the seal said: “I suppose you wear man-clothes. They’re very inconvenient. My two eldest have just outgrown their coats. If you’ll accept them——”
And it dived, and came up with two golden sealskin coats over its arm, and the children put them on.
“Thank you very much,” they said. “You _are_ kind.”
I am almost sure that it has never been your luck to wear a fur coat that fitted you like a skin, and that could not be spoiled with sand or water, or jam, or bread and milk, or any of the things with which you mess up the nice new clothes your kind relations buy for you. But if you like, you may try to imagine how jolly the little coats were.
Thomasina and Selim played all day on the beach, and when they were tired then went into a cave, and found supper—salmon and cucumber, and welsh-rabbit and lemonade—and then they went to bed in a great heap of straw and grass and fern and dead leaves, and all the delightful things you have often wished to sleep in. Only you have never been allowed to.
