"Keep them!" echoed Sprite. "Why of course I'm going to keep them."
"They're pretty of course," Gwen admitted, "but it must be a horrid job to keep them in order. Leave them where they are and come out on the beach."
"Oh, I can't," said Sprite, and she was about to say that she must place her shells and coral in safe positions before going out, but Gwen did not wait to hear what she had intended to say.
Instead, she hurried out, banging the door behind her.
"I'll find someone who'll do as I want to," she declared, and she ran up the beach to find Princess Polly, but Princess Polly and Rose were both at Avondale, and Gwen ran on to the center of the little coast village.
"I'll find someone to play with, I don't care who it is," she said, as she raced along.
When the sea trophies were all in their places, Sprite stepped back to view her work.
A smile curved her lips, and her eyes grew brighter.
"They look finer than they ever did before," she said softly, "and now I'll try to keep them just as they are arranged."
Sprite Seaford was often called a little "Water Witch," from the fact that she was so much at home on the water.