The tide was now low, and many women and children were employed in shrimping, at a distance from the shore; while the husbands and fathers of some of them were busily engaged in making the necessary repairs in their fishing-nets, which were spread all around to dry. The sun, like a vast globe of fire, seemed gradually sinking below the horizon, until it really appeared to rest upon the ocean; and then the sky and water were of the same golden hue. Edward and Lewis looked again and again, at the splendid sight, till the sun had almost disappeared, and only the bright tints remained. When they joined their mother, who was resting on one of the seats, they found that she, too, had been watching with delight the departure of the glorious orb of day; nor did she fail to remind her children, that such a sight should inspire them with gratitude to our beneficent Creator, who “giveth us all things richly to enjoy;” and whose power and goodness are alike manifest in all his works. “As you grow older,” she said, “I hope you will find much pleasure in examining them, and I am sure that the more you do so, the more you will admire the skill and wisdom of the great Artificer. But we have loitered here so long, my dears, that we must not think of going further to-night; some other day we may, perhaps, pursue our walk along the Cliff as far as Brunswick Square.” Evening, indeed, closed in upon the little party before they had anticipated; for by the time they reached home, the last streak of golden light had faded from the sky, and the stars, one by one, began to twinkle in the deep blue. Mrs. Ashton saw, as she sat at the window of her sitting-room, a sight which she thought would greatly surprise and delight the children; but she waited awhile to see whether the unusual appearance was noticed by either of them. Presently Edward looked up from his supper, which he was eating with a keen relish after their evenings ramble, and exclaimed, in a voice of astonishment and almost of alarm, “Mamma! Lewis! look! the sea is all on fire!” Lewis’s wonder was as great as his brothers: “What could it be?” Edward’s fear subsided when he had looked for a few moments on the beautiful scene; at last he said, “Dear mamma, can there be any animals in the sea that give light in the dark, as the glow-worm does on land?” Mrs. Ashton was pleased that her little boy tried to find out for himself the reason of any thing which he did not quite understand; and she asked, whether either of the children recollected to have seen, when the sea was clear, animals of a jelly-like substance, many of them with long tentaculæ, or arms, which they kept waving in all directions. “Yes,” said Lewis, “we have seen them. One of the boatmen told us they were called falling-stars.”