t enchanting
daydreams. But when, as often happened, there came towering thick
masses of snowy clouds, like mountain peaks and battlements in the
bright blue sky, her delight was so great that she could find no words
to express it.

At such times--sometimes with Glynn by her side, sometimes alone--she
would sit in a sunny nook, or in a shady nook if she felt too warm, and
invite innumerable hosts of fairies to come and conduct her through
interminable tracts of pure-white cloud region, and order such
unheard-of wild creatures (each usually wanting a tail, or a leg, or an
ear) to come out of the dark caves, that had they been all collected in
one garden for exhibition to the public, that zoological garden would
have been deemed, out of sight, the greatest of all the wonders of the
world!

When a little wearied with those aerial journeys she would return to
"Fairyland," and, leaning over the brinks of the pools, peer down into
their beautiful depths for hours at a time.

Ailie's property of Fairyland had gardens, too, of the richest possible
kind, full of flowers of the most lovely and brilliant hues. But the
flowers were scentless, and, alas! she could not pluck them, for those
gardens were all under water; they grew at the bottom of the sea!

Yes, reader, if the land was barren on that ocean islet, the pools there
made up for it by presenting to view the most luxuriant marine
vegetation. There were forests of branching coral of varied hues; there
were masses of fan-shaped sponges; there were groves of green and red
sea-weeds; and beds of red, and white, and orange, and striped creatures
that stuck to the rocks, besides little fish with bright coloured backs
that played there as if they really enjoyed living always under water--
which is not easy for us, you know, to realise! And above all, the
medium of water between Ailie and these things was so pure and pellucid
when no breeze fanned the surface, that it was difficult to believe,
unless you touched it, there was any water there at all.

While Ailie thus spent her time, or at least her leisure time, for she
was by no means an idler in that busy little isle, the men were actively
engaged each day in transporting provisions from the _Red Eric_ to the
sandbank, and in making them as secure as circumstances would admit of.
For this purpose a raft had been constructed, and several trips a day
were made to and from the wreck, so that in the course of a few days a
c