early dry
when the sea went away from it, through some stony tubes which only
worked one way, by the closure of their mouths when the tide returned;
so that the volume of the deep sometimes, with tide and wind behind it,
leaped over the brim into the pit, with tenfold the roar, a thousandfold
the power, and scarcely less than the speed, of a lion.

Mary Anerley thought what a lovely place it was, so deep and secluded
from anybody's sight, and full of bright wet colors. Her pony refused,
with his usual wisdom, to be dragged to the bottom of the hole, but she
made him come further down than he thought just, and pegged him by
the bridle there. He looked at her sadly, and with half a mind to
expostulate more forcibly, but getting no glimpse of the sea where he
stood, he thought it as well to put up with it; and presently he snorted
out a tribe of little creatures, which puzzled him and took up his
attention.

Meanwhile Mary was not only puzzled, but delighted beyond description.
She never yet had come upon such treasures of the sea, and she scarcely
knew what to lay hands upon first. She wanted the weeds of such
wonderful forms, and colors yet more exquisite, and she wanted the
shells of such delicate fabric that fairies must have made them, and a
thousand other little things that had no names; and then she seemed most
of all to want the pebbles. For the light came through them in stripes
and patterns, and many of them looked like downright jewels. She had
brought a great bag of strong canvas, luckily, and with both hands she
set to to fill it.

So busy was the girl with the vast delight of sanguine acquisition--this
for her father, and that for her mother, and so much for everybody she
could think of--that time had no time to be counted at all, but flew
by with feathers unheeded. The mutter of the sea became a roar, and the
breeze waxed into a heavy gale, and spray began to sputter through the
air like suds; but Mary saw the rampart of the rocks before her, and
thought that she could easily get back around the point. And her taste
began continually to grow more choice, so that she spent as much time
in discarding the rubbish which at first she had prized so highly as
she did in collecting the real rarities, which she was learning to
distinguish. But unluckily the sea made no allowance for all this.

For just as Mary, with her bag quite full, was stooping with a long
stretch to get something more--a thing that perhaps w