."

Nellie watched Bob with eager attention from the top of the boulder;
while Dick held the little tin bucket below the sea-anemone, so as to
catch it as soon as it had been separated from the rock. At the first
touch of Bob's knife, the anemone shrunk in, showing nothing but a row
of blue turquoise-like beads around its top or mouth; the rest of the
animal appearing to be but a dull lump of jelly, all its vivid colours
and iridescent hues having vanished on the instant of its being assailed
by Bob with that formidable weapon of his.

"It's wounded!" cried Nellie impulsively. "Don't hurt it, Bob, poor
thing!"

"It's all right, missy," said the Captain, consolingly. "It always
shrinks like that when any one interferes with it. But, look sharp,
Bob, there's your aunt waving her handkerchief like mad from the pier-
head to say that the steamer's coming in; and, by Jove, there she is,
rounding the point!"

They did look sharp; the boys, after the anemone was secured, scampering
ashore in extra high spirits on account of the old sailor telling them
that they had no time to put their shoes and stockings on, and would
have to go on board the _Bembridge Belle_ without them, like a pair of
mudlarks.

The Captain hurried, too, jumping from rock to rock and boulder to
boulder, a precaution now even more necessary than before, from the tide
having risen considerably even during their short delay and being now
nearly at the flood.

Sure-footed himself as an old sailor, though holding Nellie's hand to
prevent her slipping, he found time, in spite of his hurry, to point out
to her, growing on the beach under the low cliff, beyond where the
keeper's lodge stood, a solitary specimen of the "sea cabbage," whose
bright yellow flowers and fleshy green leaves, he suggested, would be an
addition to the general effect of her bouquet, which, by the way, Mrs
Gilmour had taken charge of while she went anemone-gathering, after this
had been discarded from the bucket.

"It isn't bad eating, either, when on a pinch for green stuff," added
the old sailor; "and I've seen boys hawking the plant about for sale at
Dover. But, let us push ahead, missy--run, boys, run, the steamer's
alongside!"

With their shoes and stockings slung over their shoulders, Bob and Dick
pattered along the shaky suspension bridge to the pier in advance,
making good way in their bare feet; but, old as he was, the Captain was
not far behind, going at a jog-trot