As the boys passed the cottage, Clyde, who had been commanded to stay at home by Felix, ran towards them, barking loudly.
"You can come on now, Clyde," said Felix; and the dog bounded happily after them up the road.
"It will be fun to go on up this way," remarked Felix; "because I've never been any farther than the cottages, where the shell road ends. We'll have to go across through a kind of cart-track after we get there, in order to cross over to the regular country road, which is a good deal back from the water. You can see the road when we get to the cottages, and it leads to the Point, where they blast rocks. They're to work there all the time, Oliver says. I didn't explore this region much last year, because I hadn't a bicycle; as for a pony-cart, it isn't worth any thing for exploring; but if you are on a bicycle, you can go over stone walls, if you want to, and then set your wheel up again and go on."
For the whole length of the shell road, the white-sanded beach was just at their left, with waves dashing gently in and retreating. The expanse of water beyond extended a long distance, and was bounded by a blue, misty strip of land that looked almost like a dark cloud lying along the horizon. There were many sail-boats visible, and now and then a yacht, a schooner, or a steamboat.
"We can see no end of yachts by going down to the Harbor," said Felix.
"Where is the Harbor?"
"Oh! they generally take the cars, and go away down below the village, you know: but we could go on our bicycles well enough; it isn't so very far. If you go down to the town, you can see all sorts of vessels: sometimes there's a whale-ship in. And there are two or three big steamboats that go from there. There are propellers and tugs and barges and schooners, and lots of excursion steamers, and a school-ship, and some of the cunningest little steamers, not much bigger than a real big sail-boat, which run between the Harbor and the town; they only charge you ten cents each way; it's a fine sail, too, past the fort and up the river."
"I should like to go to the town some day," said Johnny, who was quite captivated with this description, as he had never had an opportunity to see much shipping, except from a distance.
"We can go down there most any time: there are some things I want to buy, and they have all kinds of shops there."
So the boys talked, on one subject and another, as they rode up the shell road; and at length they reached the cottages, just beyond which the road ended.