gave her a whole apronful of bright shells that she had picked up.
The little girl was very much pleased with the shells, and soon all four were talking busily. The boy told them that his name was Will Thornton, and that his sister’s name was Ellen. Ellen had been very ill, Will said, and that was the reason that her cheeks were so pale; but now she was going to get well at once. His papa had taken a house high up on a cliff that rose above the ocean. It was more than two miles away from where they now where, and Will told Hal that they had been left on the beach by their papa and mamma, who had gone to make a call and would soon come back for them in a carriage and take them home. Hal and Dolly liked their new friends very much, and were very sorry that they lived so far away; but Will said that he would ask his papa sometime when they were out driving
to leave them at their house, so that they could spend the whole morning together.
And playing on the sands was not the only way Hal and Dolly had of passing their days; sometimes their papa took them in the Speedwell across the bay to Oldport. When he had business to transact he would leave them in charge of old Andrew, but when he was not very busy he would take them with him. They never failed to stop and see Lassie, and Hal was always much disappointed that no news from her family had come. Hal enjoyed these trips to Oldport more than anything else. It was such fun to see the sailors on the ships that lay idly at the piers. Sometimes they would be lying on a coil of rope spinning yarns, and Hal wished that he could go and listen, for he was sure that he should enjoy their stories.
Sometimes a man-of-war lay in the harbor, and Hal was wildly envious of the midshipmen