said, for it didn't matter to me where I landed.
One of the islands is the same thing as another. In fact Inishbawn, if
that's its name, doesn't look a very good place for sponges."

"Oh, you still stick to those sponges?" said Priscilla.

"Miss Rutherford," said Frank, "is collecting zoophytes for the British
Museum."

"Investigating and tabulating," said Miss Rutherford, "for the Royal
Dublin Society's Natural History Survey."

"I took up elementary science last term," said Priscilla, "but we didn't
do about those things of yours. I daresay we'll get on to them next
year. If we do I'll write to you for the names of some of the rarer
kinds and score off Miss Pennycolt with them. She's the science teacher,
and she thinks she knows a lot. It'll do her good to be made to look
small over a sponge that she's never seen before, or even heard of."

"I'll send them to you," said Miss Rutherford. "I take the greatest
delight in scoring off science teachers everywhere. I was taught science
myself at one time and I know exactly what it's like."

Jimmy Kinsella sat on a stone with his back to the party in the
_Tortoise_. An instinct for good manners is the natural inheritance of
all Irishmen. The peasant has it as surely as the peer, generally indeed
more surely, for the peer, having mixed more with men of other nations,
loses something of his natural delicacy of feeling. When, as in the case
of young Kinsella, the Irishman has much to do with the sea his courtesy
reaches a high degree of refinement As the advancing tide crept inch
by inch over the mudbank Jimmy Kinsella was forced back towards the
_Tortoise_. He moved from stone to stone, dragging his boat after him as
the water floated her. Never once did he look round or make any attempt
to attract the attention of Miss Rutherford. He would no doubt have
retreated uncomplaining to the highest point of the bank and sat there
till the water reached his waist, clinging to the painter of the boat,
rather than disturb the conversation of the lady whom he had taken under
his care. But his courtesy was put to no such extreme test He made a
move at last which brought him within a few feet of the _Tortoise_. A
mere patch of sea-soaked mud remained uncovered. The water, advancing
from the far side of the bank, already lapped against the bows of
the _Tortoise_. Miss Rutherford woke up to the fact that the time for
catching sponges was past.

"I'm afraid," she said, "that I ought to