Lewis thought there must be quite as much pleasure in travelling as would compensate for the danger and toil: “So, Edward,” he said, “when I am a man and a traveller, I will send you home specimens of birds, beasts, and fishes; and you may class and arrange them all to your heart’s content; for that is dull work, if you please.”
Here their mother warned them that it was long past the usual time for their retiring to rest.
“Mamma,” said Edward, “may I ask you one thing before we go? Will you let me hear those lines you were repeating to papa the other day; there was something about striking the waves with an oar, and the cold flame flashing along the hand, which I could not at all understand: but now, I think I know what it meant.”
“I will repeat them with pleasure, my love,” said his mother, “they describe the very scene which has delighted you so much:—
‘See, as they float along, the entangled weeds
Slowly approach, upborne on bladdery beads:
Wait till they land, and you shall then behold
The fiery sparks those tangled frons’ infold,
Myriads of living points; th’ unaided eye
Can but the fire and not the form descry.