e, was up at the head of Noel's Cove, where there was a
little grey house perched on the rocks and looking like a large
seashell cast up by the tide. The house had a stovepipe coming out of
its roof in lieu of a chimney, and two of its window panes were
replaced by shingles. Could this boy, who looked as young princes
should--and seldom do--live there? Then he was a shore boy after all.

"Who lives there with you?" she asked. "You see"--plaintively--"I must
ask questions about you. I know we like each other, and that is all
that really matters. But there are some tiresome items which it would
be convenient to know. For example, have you a father--a mother? Are
there any more of you? How long have you been yourself?"

Paul did not reply immediately. He clasped his hands behind him and
looked at her affectionately.

"I like the way you talk," he said. "I never knew anybody did talk
like that except folks in books and my rock people."

"Your rock people?"

"I'm eleven years old. I haven't any father or mother, they're dead. I
live over there with Stephen Kane. Stephen is splendid. He plays the
violin and takes me fishing in his boat. When I get bigger he's going
shares with me. I love him, and I love my rock people too."

"What do you mean by your rock people?" asked Miss Trevor, enjoying
herself hugely. This was the only child she had ever met who talked as
she wanted children to talk and who understood her remarks without
having to have them translated.

"Nora is one of them," said Paul, "the best one of them. I love her
better than all the others because she came first. She lives around
that point and she has black eyes and black hair and she knows all
about the mermaids and water kelpies. You ought to hear the stories
she can tell. Then there are the Twin Sailors. They don't live
anywhere--they sail all the time, but they often come ashore to talk
to me. They are a pair of jolly tars and they have seen everything in
the world--and more than what's in the world, if you only knew it. Do
you know what happened to the Youngest Twin Sailor once? He was
sailing and he sailed right into a moonglade. A moonglade is the track
the full moon makes on the water when it is rising from the sea, you
know. Well, the Youngest Twin Sailor sailed along the moonglade till
he came right up to the moon, and there was a little golden door in
the moon and he opened it and sailed right through. He had some
wonderful adventures inside t