‘Yes, I am sure she will,’ cried Alice; ‘I am so glad that I have found it!’ and Alice put it into her pocket.
‘I will try and find a pretty stone too for mamma,’ said Beatrice, and she ran along the sand, close to the waves: and just when Mary called her to come away, a large wave came higher up than the others had done before, and wetted little Beatrice’s shoes and socks.
Beatrice ran back to Mary, and she was a little frightened, and she said, ‘Mary, I did not hear you call me till that big wave came up to my feet, and I could not run away quick enough, and my feet are so wet.’
‘We must go home directly, Miss Beatrice,’ said Mary, ‘and make haste and change your shoes and socks;’ and they went home.
Another day they went to the beach again, and their grandmamma went with them. As they went through the pretty garden, they stopped to look at the rose-trees that were beginning to bloom; and grandmamma gave Alice a white rose and Beatrice a dark-red one. She cut off the thorns from the stalks, and Beatrice asked her, ‘Why do you cut off those things, grandmamma?’
‘Those things are called thorns, my dear child; they would prick your fingers, for they are very sharp.’
The children looked at the thorns, and put their fingers to them, and said, ‘They prick like needles.’ They thanked her for the roses, and smelt them, for they were very sweet.
They went on to the gate, and then grandmamma opened it, and gave Beatrice her hand across the narrow bridge, and down the steep path, and the many steps.
Alice ran on alone, jumping along, and pulling some wild flowers that grew in the grass on each side the path, and she came first to the beach, and then ran back to meet her grandmamma and little sister.
When they came to the sea-shore, they saw that Mary was there waiting for them with a large basket. They knew that the basket was full of their bathing dresses; for their grandmamma liked them to bathe in the sea whenever the weather was warm and the sun shone.