ou can easily
imagine how surprising it all seemed to her. At first it frightened
her to go so fast, but that soon wore off, and all the rest was
enjoyment. Little things, which people used to railroads hardly
notice, struck her as strange and pleasant. When the magazine-boy
chucked "Ballou's Dollar Monthly" into her lap, she jumped, and said,
"Oh, thank you!" and she was quite overcome by the successive gifts,
as she supposed, of a paper of pop-corn, a paper of lozenges, and a
"prize package," containing six envelopes, six sheets of note-paper,
six pens, a wooden pen-handle and a "piece of jewelry,"--all for
twenty-five cents!

"Did he really give them to me?" she asked papa, quite gasping at the
idea of such generosity.

Then the ice-water boy came along, with his frame of tumblers; she had
a delicious cold drink, and told papa "she did think the railroad was
so kind," which made him laugh; and, as seeing him laugh brightened
her spirits, they journeyed on very cheerfully.

About noon, they changed cars, and presently after that Eyebright
became aware of a change in the air, a cool freshness and odor of salt
and weeds, which she had never smelt before, and liked amazingly. She
was just going to ask papa about it when the train made a sudden curve
and swept alongside a yellow beach, beyond which lay a great shining
expanse,--gray and silvery and blue,--over which dappled foamy waves
played and leaped, and large white birds were skimming and diving. She
drew a long breath of delight, and said, half to herself and half to
papa, "That is the sea!"

"How did you know?" asked he, smiling.

"Oh, papa, it couldn't be any thing else. I knew it in a minute."

After that, they were close to the sea almost all the way. Eyebright
felt as if she could never be tired of watching the waves rise and
fall, or of breathing the air, which seemed to fill and satisfy her
like food though it made her hungry, too, and she was glad of the nice
luncheon which Mr. Bury had packed up for them. But even pleasant
things have a tiring side to them, and as night drew on, Eyebright
began to think she should be as glad of bed as she had been of dinner.

Her heavy head had been nodding for some time, and had finally dropped
upon papa's shoulder, when he roused her with a shake and said,--

"Wake up, Eyebright, wake up! Here we are."

"At the Island?" she asked, drowsily.

"No, not at the Island yet. This is the steamboat."

To see a steam