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AT THE |
SEASIDE |
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The first thing to do on reaching the seaside is to find out when it is low tide. In each twelve hours low tide comes twenty minutes later, and knowing this you can arrange your days accordingly. Nothing is so saddening as to run down the beach in the belief that the tide is going out and to find that it is coming in.
To boys who wear knickerbockers the preparations for paddling are very simple ; but girls are not so fortunate. Lewis Carroll (who wrote Alice in Wonderland) took their difficulties so seriously that whenever he went to the seaside to stay he used to have with him a packet of safety-pins for the use of any children that seemed to be in need of them. This piece of thoughtfulness on his part might determine you to carry them for yourselves.
In paddling, a nurse is both a help and a hindrance. In so far as she will mind your things and carry towels she is a help ; but the fact that her presence makes it necessary for you to come out of the water at the same place at which you went in is a hindrance to true adventure. On the other hand, if she is not there you will probably have to carry your boots and stockings round your neck or in your hands, which is very hampering ; and not having any towel, and handkerchiefs being so small and quickly soaked, you will not get your feet properly dried or cleaned of sand, and this will make the walk home very uncomfortable. One thing that the nurse, or whoever is guarding clothes, ought to be most particular about is to stay in the same spot all the time. The discovery that your things are not where you left them can spoil a whole morning. |
Low tide Paddling |
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