The midsummer holidays at last came round, and Mrs. Leslie, who had been busy packing up and arranging things for some weeks, now resolved to shut up the house for a whole month and, with the family, set off for Kingshaven. It was a long way off—some thirty or forty miles—so it was quite like an adventure to Harry Leslie and his little brothers and sisters, and scarcely less so to Walter Hammond, who was to accompany them. Harry had been very active in helping his mother all the day before the departure, and once when carrying a heavy box down from the attics he had felt it bump heavily against his knee; but being a brave little boy, he said and thought nothing Harry wakened early on the Saturday morning that had been fixed for their journey with this bright vision before his eyes; but a sudden shoot of pain, as he moved his knee, made him fall back on his pillow and almost scream for help. He controlled himself, however, and began to examine again the wounded spot. There was a swelling; but the blue and black marks he had seen last night were nearly gone. After a long but pleasant journey they reached the busy little sea-side resort of Kingshaven—a brisk, rising town, greatly patronized by families in search of bathing and safe boating and other marine enjoyments. Briery Cottage, which Mrs. Leslie had hired for the month, was very satisfactory in every way but one. It stood so far up in the town and in such a position that no view of the sea whatever, not even the tiniest bit, was to be obtained from its windows. That was a drawback certainly; and as they had only chosen it “Well, it does not much matter, after all,” said Mrs. Leslie. “You children will be all day long on the beach; and as for me, if I take my knitting down to the rocks all the afternoons, I shall see as much of the sea as I want to. You know I am not so much in love with it as you all are.” Briery Cottage, though it did not command a sea-view, was a very nice, comfortable little cottage, with a pleasant garden in front and a long strip of bowling-green behind. In front passed the wide public road, with many carriages and other vehicles constantly coming and going; so it could not be called a dull place at all events. “O mamma, what a nice place Kingshaven is!” said Harry, quite enthusiastically. “Not even if you didn’t see the sea, Harry?” asked his father, laughing. “Oh, but that would be impossible, you know, papa!” answered Harry. Harry was to have a longer time at Kingshaven than he imagined, and perhaps if he could have foreseen everything he would not have talked so very confidently of “never wearying.” But it is very good for all of us that just one step of our way is open before us. It helps to make us humble and trustful, looking for guidance better and higher than our own, and may often preserve us from being needlessly downcast and depressed. Mr. and Mrs. Leslie were very glad to see all their children so well and bright and so pleased with the holiday treat they had provided for them. “Oh, we are all coming!” added his wife. “I assure you none of us would like to miss the spectacle; and if none of the little ones fall over the rocks, I’m sure everything will go well!” By the time they got thoroughly settled in their new home it was getting quite late in the day, so there was only time for a saunter all along the beach and the parade and the principal streets of Kingshaven. It was with some difficulty that Harry managed to walk now; but so anxious was he to secure his grand treat on Monday that he still kept his pain to himself. Walter and he had selected one delightful “We’ll call it a pirate ship, Wat,” cried Harry excitedly, “and it will be grand to see it chasing the little boats all about. What a splendid thing the sea is! I wish we could stay always beside it.” Walter agreed to all Harry said. “Yes,” he said, “that will be the very thing. The Rover is the very name for a pirate ship, you know. Let’s be up in good time on Monday morning, Harry, and be down here for a first venture by ourselves, in case it doesn’t work right just at the very first, you know, and people might laugh.” But we must go on with the story. “What are you thinking about, Harry?” said his mother as she bustled about, getting Bobby and Frank, Lucy and Janey, washed and dried and put to bed in the tiny nursery at Briery Cottage, which indeed was very different from the one they had left at Rosehampton, though, with the usual happy taste of children, Lucy and Janey thought their narrow cribs ever so much nicer than the home ones; while Bobby and Frank considered the two skylights here infinitely preferable to the large bow-window they were accustomed to. Harry was sitting in a contemplative manner upon a trunk on the landing below, Walter having preceded him upstairs. Thus admonished, Harry made his way upstairs to the back attic, where Walter and he and the Rover were moored. |