"Very well," said nurse gravely, though she felt very much inclined to laugh, "then run and get your things as fast as you can."
And, oh, how happy the two were when they found themselves out on the shore all alone! They were so happy, they did not know what to do; so first of all, they ran races to run away a little of the happiness. And when they had run themselves quite hot, they sat down on a little heap of stones to consider what they should do next. They had no spades with them, for they did not care very much about digging; children who live always by the sea never care so much about digging as the little visitors who come down in the summer, and whose very first idea at the sight of the sea is "spades and buckets."
"What shall we play at, Carrots?" said Floss, "I wish it was warm enough to paddle."
Carrots looked at the little soft rippling waves, contemplatively.
"When I'm a man," he said, "I shall paddle always. I shall paddle in winter too. When I'm a man I won't have no nurse."
"Carrots," said Floss, reproachfully, "that isn't good of you. Think how kind nurse is."
"Well, then," replied Carrots, slowly, "I will have her, but she must let me paddle always, when I'm a man."
"When you are a man, Carrots," said Floss, solemnly still, "I hope you will have something better to do than paddling. Perhaps you'll be a soldier, like Jack."
"Killing people isn't better than paddling," retorted Carrots. "I'd rather be a sailor, like papa."
"Sailors have to kill people, too, sometimes," said Floss.