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A cork ship. Wet clothes.
Rocks. |
154 What Shall We Do Now?
Once ready, the walk, or hobble, over the stones to the sand begins. When there is a nurse she will perhaps tell you to keep on your shoes until the stones are done, and leave them there for her to fetch. Another way is to throw them back to her ; but unless you throw very well this will probably mean just as much trouble to her as fetching them. If you have a walking-stick or a strong spade you can, even with naked feet, get over the stones fairly comfortably. A walking-stick, in fact, is rather a good thing to take into the water ; you can push it into quicksands, and throw it out to sea and wade to it, and use it to hook in your boat with.
Sailing a good boat in the sea is not the best fun, but there is a kind of boat which is very easily made as you sit on the beach, and which is useful to play with when paddling, and afterwards to throw stones at. You take a piece of cork for the hull. Cut a line down the middle underneath and wedge a strip of slate in for a keel to keep her steady. Fix a piece of driftwood for a mast, and thread a piece of paper on that for a sail.
When paddling it is just as well not to get your clothes wet if you can help it. Clothes that are made wet with sea-water, which probably has a little sand in it, are as uncomfortable as crumbs in bed. There is no reason why you should get them wet if you paddle wisely. Sitting among the rocks, running through the water, and jumping the little crisping waves are the best ways to get soaked. Rounding a groyne often leads to a soaking too, because at the end of each groyne there is a hollow which (unless you climb the groyne) you must wade through or go into deepish water to avoid.
Seaside places where there are rocks and a great stretch of sand are the best. Rocks make paddling twice as exciting, because of the interesting things in the little pools—the anemones, and seaweeds, and shells, and crabs, and shrimps, and perhaps little fish. Sometimes these pools are quite hot. To enjoy the rocks properly you want a net. |
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