eA MESSAGE
FROM
THE SEA.

HE tide was low, leav-
ing.a great stretch of

    
 

golden sand between
the towering cliffs and the sea.
. Delicate sprays of seaweed floated
» in the crevices of the brown rocks

where pale pink and green ane-

i

mones gleamed like fairy flowers.

Dot and Jack Ferris had built
a sand castle quite close to the water’s edge; but an enterprising wavelet had
run into the moat and washed it away in a moment. Jack was for beginning
again. He did not like to be frustrated in his plans, and already his active
brain had devised a more substantial fortress, when his eyes fell upon a beau-
tiful shell. It was all crinkled and streaked with faint rings of various colors.

“ This comes from over the sea, Dot,” he cried. ‘We haven't anything
like it. I wonder how it got here, and if it brings a message? Molly says
one lives in the heart of every shell.” He put it to his ear gravely. “I often
think I hear something,” he said, nodding his curly head and looking very
wise. ‘ Dot, you listen.”

Dot took off her pink sun-bonnet, and tried her best to hear the message ;
but there was only a faint murmur as of distant water, and she could make
nothing of it.

“Let's take it to Molly,” said she: ‘“ Molly knows everything. She'll tell
us all about it!”

“Tell us the message, Molly,” cried Jack, running over the sand and break-
ing in upon his sister’s reverie.

Molly turned towards him with a far-away look in her blue eyes. She was
quite accustomed to these demands.

“T was just dreaming,” she said, ‘about the meaning of the song of the