Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

CUTHBERT GOES BATHING. 299
cases. For instance, young James Lee, great-grandson of Master James Lee, up to Slarrow, lost six dozen (some say nine, but
that I don't believe) of oyster-shells, which he was storing up for
a grotto. Cuthbert very properly refunded the price of them,
which amounted to twopence.
"Nonsense, again," you say. Why, no. What I have written
above is not nonsense. The whims and oddities of a village,
which one has seen with one's own eyes, and heard with one's
own ears, are not nonsense. I knew, when I began, what I had
to say in this chapter, and I have just followed on a train of
images; and the more readily, because I know that what I have
to say in this chapter must be said without effort, to be said well.
If I thought I was writing for a reader who was going to criticise closely my way of telling my story, I tell you the honest
truth, I should tell my story very poorly indeed. Of course, I
must submit to the same criticism as my betters. But there are
times when I feel that I must have my reader go hand in hand
with me. To do so, he must follow the same train of ideas as I
do. At such times, I write as naturally as I can. I see that
greater men than I have done the same. I see that Captain
Marryat, for instance, at a particular part of his noblest novel,
" The King's Own," has put in a chapter about his grandmother
and the spring tides, which, for perfect English and rough humor,
it is hard to match anywhere.
I have not dared to play the fool, as he has, for two reasons, -
the first, that I could not play it so well; and the second, that I
have no frightful tragedy to put before you, to counterbalance it,
as he had. Well, it is time that this rambling came to an end.
I hope that I have not rambled too far, and bored you. That
would be very unfortunate just now.
Ravenshoe bay again, then, - in the pleasant summer drought
I have been speaking of before. Father Mackworth and the
two Tiernays were lying on the sand, looking to sea. Cuthbert
had gone off' to send away some boys who were bathing too near
the mouth of the stieam, and hunting his precious salmon. The
younger Tiernay had recently taken to collect "' common objects
of the shore," - a pleasant, healthy mania which prevailed about
that time. He had been dabbling among the rocks at the western end of the bay, and had just joined his brother and Father
Mackworth with a tin box full of all sorts of creatures; and he
turned them out on the sand, and called their attention to them.
" A very good morning's work, my brother," he said. "These
anemones are all good and rare ones."
" Bedad," said the jolly priest, "they'd need be of some
value, for they ain't pretty to look at. What's this cockle, now,
wid the long red spike coming out of him?"
"Cardium tuberculatum."