He ran with all his might, but it was in vain. The wave was too fast for him, and he got wet up to his knees. Neptune swam out at the same time, and shook the water out of his long hair all over him.
"We must go in for dry socks and shoes," said his mama. "But we need not be long about it. As to Neptune's contribution, I can rub that away with my handkerchief."
They went in, but soon got all put to rights and came out again. Passing on towards the stairs they came to a toy-shop, and stopped to look at the things.
"Those wooden spades are exactly like what the boys were digging with," said Johnny. "Will you buy us one, mama?"
She answered by going into the shop and telling him to choose one, and greatly added to his pleasure by telling Louisa to choose one also.
"May Helen have one too?" said Louisa.
"I am afraid she is too old for a wooden spade," replied her mama, smiling.
But Helen declared she was not at all too old, and the shopman said he often sold spades to young ladies of her age; so she also had one, and all three sallied forth, and went down to the cliff in great glee. They began to dig as soon as they reached the hard sands. At first they only dug holes; but after a while Helen proposed that they should make a house standing in a garden, with a wall round it. She was to build the house, while Louisa and Johnny made the wall of round white stones, of which they found plenty. They drew a line to shew the boundary, and fixed a row of stones in it. The sand Helen dug out to build the house left a hollow, which they decided should be a pond in the garden, and they planned several walks and a grass-plot, on which they determined to lay green sea-weed, such as they had seen on the rocks.
"How pretty a grotto would look in one corner!" said Louisa.
Both the others thought so too; they therefore left their work, and began to look for shells.