passed her
nervous fingers rapidly over the little ring of sprinkled spears, and
then said very softly, with head aslant as if ashamed, "Oh, yes, so it
is; it is only a daisy."

But to tell of how those first days of sight sped along for Naomi, with
what delight of ever-fresh surprise, and joy of new wonder, would be a
long task if a beautiful one. They were some miles inside the coast, but
from the little hill-top near at hand they could see it clearly; and one
day when Naomi had gone so far with her father, she drew up suddenly
at his side, and cried in a breathless voice of awe, "The sky! the sky!
Look! It has fallen on to the land."

"That is the sea, my child," said Israel.

"The sea!" she cried, and then she closed her eyes and listened, and
then opened them and blushed and said, while her knitted brows smoothed
out and her beautiful face looked aside, "So it is--yes, it is the sea."

Throughout that day and the night which followed it the eyes of her
mind were entranced by the marvel of that vision, and next morning she
mounted the hill alone, to look upon it again; and, being so far, she
walked farther and yet farther, wandering on and on, through fields
where lavender grew and chamomile blossomed, on and on, as though drawn
by the enchantment of the mighty deep that lay sparkling in the sun,
until at last she came to the head of a deep gully in the coast. Still
the wonder of the waters held her, but another marvel now seized
upon her sight. The gully was a lonesome place inhabited by countless
sea-birds. From high up in the rocks above, and from far down in the
chasm below, from every cleft on every side, they flew out, with white
wings and black ones and grey and blue, and sent their voices into the
air, until the echoing place seemed to shriek and yell with a deafening
clangour.

It was midday when Naomi reached this spot, and she sat there a long
hour in fear and consternation. And when she returned to her father, she
told him awesome stories of demons that lived in thousands by the sea,
and fought in the air and killed each other. "And see!" she cried; "look
at this, and this, and this!"

Then Israel glanced at the wrecks she had brought with her of the
devilish warfare that she had witnessed and "This," said he, lifting
one of them, "is a sea-bird's feather; and this," lifting another, "is
a sea-bird's egg; and this," lifting the third, "is a dead sea-bird
itself."

Once more Naomi knit her brows