THE FIRST DAY AT THE SEA.
"Ramsgate! Ramsgate!" was called by the man at the station, as the train stopped.
"Ramsgate!" repeated a little boy in one of the carriages, waking up out of a sound sleep.
"Why, Johnny, you have been asleep," said his elder sister Helen; "and Louisa asleep too! Wake up. We are at Ramsgate."
"Where's the sea?" said Johnny, rubbing his eyes.
"It is now quite dark," answered his papa, who was already out of the carriage. "Nothing can be seen till to-morrow. Make haste, little Johnny: I will carry you."
In a minute Johnny was seated in a fly, his sisters beside him, then their mama and their papa on the box. Joseph the groom was seeing the luggage put on a truck; the bell rang, the engine began to puff and blow like some great animal preparing to start off again with his load, and away went the train.
"Where are Neptune and Spot?" asked Louisa, putting her head out at the window.
"I hear them barking. Joseph has got them safe out of the train," answered her papa, as they began to move on.
This family came from Warwickshire, which is a long way from the coast, and the children had never yet even had a sight of the sea. They looked out on both sides as they drove along, but in vain; the night was very dark, and they could see nothing. They heard, however, a grand sound, such as they had never heard before, which their mama told them was the sound of the waves; and the air felt very fresh. They presently stopped at a door, which was quickly opened and they got out. It was very nice to go up an unknown staircase, to peep into a strange drawing-room, then to go up to the bed-rooms, where everything was new to them. They thought the beds and curtains very white and clean, and were very glad to see their nurse again, who had gone on a day before them, and had everything ready; and as it was too dark to see out of the windows, they began to long for nothing so much as to lie down in the comfortable white beds; so, before half an hour was over, all three were fast asleep.