[Illustration] SHELLS AND PEBBLES. A Story for Children. BY THE AUTHOR OF “STORIES FOR THE NURSERY.” PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE: SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES: 77, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS; 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE; 48, PICCADILLY; AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. LONDON: R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL. SHELLS AND PEBBLES. Children who were born, and have lived all their lives, in an inland county, scarcely know what is meant by “the sea.” Henry Miller was one of these; he was eight years old, and though he had been taken, when quite a baby, to the sea-shore, he could not recollect anything about it. Now, if you live near the sea, I dare say you may think: “Well, I should not like to live in an inland county, so far away from the sea as never to be able to walk on the beach, or to climb the rocks, or to pick up curious things on the shore. I would not be Henry Miller for the world.” You will laugh, perhaps, at the way that Henry found out that the sea was salt; but, after all, he may now know some things about it which you do not; and, though he was not many hours on the shore, he may have picked up some curious things which you never saw in your life. Some other things he saw, which, I doubt not, you have seen, but he may have learnt something even about these which you do not know, so that what was told to him may be new to you also. But if you too, like Henry Miller, live inland, you will be pleased to hear what he saw, though nothing happened to him different from what any little boy may meet with when visiting the sea-side. I am not going to tell you an amusing story, but only to write about things which any one who has eyes, and knows how to use them, may see for himself, and which any one who wishes to learn may read of in useful books, or find out by asking those who know better than himself.