"Your eyes are younger than mine, William, and perhaps you may - however, we shall soon find out."
They now descended into a small hollow, and then went up hill again. As soon as they arrived at the top, William cried out, "The sea, Ready! there's the sea!"
"Very true, William, and I'm not sorry for it."
"I thought we never should get out of that nasty wood again," said William, as he impatiently pushed on, and at last stood clear of the cocoa-nut grove. Ready soon joined him, and they surveyed the scene before them in silence.
Chapter XV
"Oh! how beautiful!" exclaimed William, at last; "I'm sure mamma would like to live here. I thought the other side of the island very pretty, but it's nothing compared to this."
"It is very beautiful," replied Ready, thoughtfully.
A more lovely scene could scarcely be imagined. The cocoa-nut grove terminated about a quarter of a mile from the beach, very abruptly, for there was a rapid descent for about thirty feet from where they stood to the land below, on which was a mixture of little grass knolls and brushwood, to about fifty yards from the water's edge, where it was met with dazzling white sand, occasionally divided by narrow ridges of rock which ran inland. The water was a deep blue, except where it was broken into white foam on the reefs, which extended for miles from the beach, and the rocks of which now and then showed themselves above water. On the rocks were perched crowds of gannets and men-of-war birds, while others wheeled in the air, every now and then darting down into the blue sea, and bringing up in their bills a fish out of the shoals which rippled the water, or bounded clear of it in their gambols. The form of the coast was that of a horse-shoe bay - two points of land covered with shrubs extending far out on each side. The line of the horizon, far out at sea, was clear and unbroken.
Ready remained for some time without speaking; he scanned the horizon right and left, and then he turned his eyes along the land. At last William said:
"What are you thinking of, Ready?"