There was a tent at the foot of the cliff, for a steep cliff rose very high a little way from the sea-shore on each side of the narrow valley through which they had to come. In this tent the two little girls went to undress and get ready for bathing. Mary helped them; and when they had put on their bathing dresses, Mary did the same, and went into the sea with them.
Alice ran into the water alone, and jumped over the little waves that came rolling gently on to the shore. Beatrice took hold of Mary’s hand, but she was not afraid, and she dipped her face and hands into the waves, and she tried to jump about like Alice.
Then Beatrice asked Mary to let her float; and Mary held Beatrice’s head, and the little girl lay quite stiff and quiet on the water, and her feet and body floated, which she liked very much.
‘Please, Mary,’ said Alice, ‘let me try and float too.’ And Mary let Beatrice stand by her side and floated Alice backwards and forwards.
‘When I am a little older,’ said Alice, ‘grandmamma says that I must learn to swim.’
‘And I, too,’ said Beatrice.
After the children had jumped about a short time in the waves, and were quite warm, their grandmamma said—
‘Come out now, you have been in the water long enough;’ and the little girls came out and ran into the tent, where they were soon dried and dressed, for their grandmamma helped them too, and they made haste to go home, up the many steps and steep path, and were glad to have their dinner, because they were hungry after their bath.
