“Oh, how wonderful,” said Mavis.
And Ruby added, “I should think if we lived long enough in this country we should end by hearing the grass growing.”
“Perhaps,” said Winfried.
“But don’t you miss the sea things?” Ruby went on. “You love them so, Winfried, and somehow you seem to belong to the sea.”
“So I do,” the boy replied. “The sea is my life. Coming here is only a rest and a holiday.”
“I wonder,” said Mavis, “I wonder if there is a garden country for the sea to match this for the land. A place where seaweeds and corals and all the loveliest sea things are taken care of, like the wild flowers here?”
“You may be sure there is,” said the fisher-boy, smiling. “There is no saying what the princess won’t have to show us, and where she won’t take us now she has us in hand. Why, only to look into her eyes, you can see it—they seem to reach to everywhere; everywhere and everything beautiful seems in them.”
“You have seen farther into them than we have,” said Mavis thoughtfully. “But still I think I can understand what you mean.”
“So can I, a very little,” said Ruby. “But—they are rather frightening too, don’t you think?”
“They must be at first,” said Winfried.