ome on shore to find their mother. She
was seen praying in the church, working at her spinning wheel at home,
happy but apparently not wholly forgetful of her family in the sea, for
she sighed and dropped a tear as she looked over the sand to the sea.

7. The father feels that his wife is cruel and faithless and that she
has deserted, forever, himself and his family, the kings of the sea.

IV. _The Characters._ Question the children till they see clearly the
persons.

1. The principal character is the deserted merman, a king of the sea.
Ought he to expect his wife to stay with him?

2. The wife, a human being who has loved a merman, and who has a family
of sea children, but who has suddenly become awakened to the danger to
her soul. Is she selfish? Ought she to have forsaken her family? Can she
really be happy away from her husband and family?

3. The children. How many were there? How old were they? Were there both
boys and girls? Do you think Mr. Reese had a clear idea of the family
when he drew the picture (page 181)? There must have been at least
three, for it is said that the mother tended the youngest well; at least
one girl, for the mother sighed for the strange eyes of a little
mermaiden.

4. The priest.

V. _Pictures._ Two series of pictures are kept side by side all the
time; one of the land, and the other of the sea. Try to create a vivid
scene from each.

_First_, on land: We can see a little town, nestling on the side of a
bleak, wind-swept hill, an old English town with a white stone wall all
around it. On the hill, which is too rough to be cultivated, grow great
fields of heather, studded with the golden blossoms of broom-plant. A
little gray stone church stands surrounded by its yard, where the
village dead are buried, for such was the old custom in England. The
stones are at the head of the graves, and the walls of the church are
rain- and storm-worn, but bright stained-glass windows in the building
and flowers and trees among the graves make the place very beautiful.
Some of the windows are clear, so that you can look through and gaze
along the aisle bordered by high wooden pews and see the priest reading
service, and, by one of the stone pillars, the merman's wife, her eyes
steadily gazing at the bible in her lap. You are privileged, too, to
peep into one of the thatched cottages, and see the mother turning the
old-fashioned spinning wheel. From her house there is a wide view down
the hill,