220 Tom Seven Years Old.

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ready for them to get in and sail away down
to the sea.”

“Oh yes,” cried the children, delighted.
The very same evening they kept their
empty walnut-shells and nut-shells from des-
sert and carried them secretly upstairs ; and
the very next day, as soon as their lesson®
were done, they set to work to build them
into ships. The larger vessels were built of
walnut-shells, with two sails made of the
crimson petals of the peony flower, and six
oars made of the stalks of six daisies, nicely
shaped at the end. And the smaller vessels
were made of nut-shells, with the yellow
petals of the marigold for sails, and four oars
made of the stalks of the pimpernel, also
nicely shaped at the end. There were twelve
large vessels and nine small in the fleet.
When they were quite finished and set in a
row, they looked really beautiful, and the
children only wished they were small enough
themselves to get into them and row down
the river in the moonlight to the sea. ‘They
carried them straight to Ralph to know if he