ng.

"Yes, dear. Besides, the young captain whom Dorothy was going to marry
went away last year and, his ship was wrecked and he has never been
heard from. So they fear he was drowned."

"O, mother, can this pretty sea do that? What was it they were saying
about a tide?"

Their mother tried to explain all she knew about the tides, and when she
had finished, Ethelwyn said:

"I think it would be easier to remember to call it tied, and then
untied."

_CHAPTER III_
_Beth and Her Dolls_

Dollie's poor mother is quite full of care,
As she who lived in a shoe,
For this child is tousled, this one undressed--
Mother has all she can do.
More dollies there are, than possible clothes,
Some of them must go to bed.
And some to be healed by mother with glue,
Lacking an arm or a head.
Then others, wearing the invalid's clothes,
Care not a fling or a jot
Nor know that to-morrow their own fate may be
The bed, or the mucilage pot.

The first Sunday that the children were at the seashore was warm and
beautiful.

Mrs. Rayburn and Mrs. Stevens went to church in the picturesque stone
chapel built by a sea captain, as a memorial to his daughter who was
drowned on the coast some years before this.

"We'll be really better girls to stay at home some of the church time,"
said Ethelwyn at breakfast, "we'll go this evening with Miss Dorothy."

"My dolls are needing a bath and their best clothes for Sunday-school,"
said Beth to Ethelwyn, who had decided to go down on the beach; "and I
can do it all comfy and nice while you are gone."

So Ethelwyn and 'Vada went for a run on the beach, and mother Elizabeth,
with a look of happy care on her face, and her beloved six dolls in her
arms, came out on the porch, where she had already taken a basin of
water, soap, a tiny sponge, and towels.

Directly she became aware of some one near her, and looking up saw a
girl with dark eyes and short, straight hair watching the proceedings
with much interest, her hands clasped behind her back.

"My name is Nan," said the visitor as soon as she caught Elizabeth's
eye, "Who are you? Is this your house? We've just come, and mother is in
bed with a headache, and father's gone to church, so I'm roaming around
seeking something to devour--"

"Does that mean eat?" said Elizabeth, a scene in one of her picture
books of lions devouring their prey coming into her mind.

"I think it's wha