In a few days Henry was at home again; but as you may like to know
what he did with his treasures, I will tell you. Some were placed in
his little museum, or collection of curiosities. The larger shells and
pebbles, together with some pieces of spar, which were brought, another
day, from a limestone quarry, were applied to a different purpose.
A round zinc saucer was procured, about fourteen inches across, and three
deep. About six or eight holes were bored in the bottom with a gimlet,
and a number of pieces of broken tiles and flower-pots were placed in it,
with a small pot turned upside down in the middle. Over the potsherds was
placed a layer of moss, and the saucer was filled up with earth. Round
the pot in the middle, the shells and stones were built up to the height
of six or eight inches, and the ferns planted in some more earth between.
The whole was well watered, and then covered with a large glass dome. A
prettier little rockery you never saw. Its only fault is that, when once
made, it scarcely ever requires anything to be done to it. You cannot
give it too much water, for what it does not want drains away through
the holes in the bottom, and the earth is not washed away with it, for
the moss stops it. And you can scarcely make a mistake in giving it too
little water, for, as long as it is covered with a glass, the water,
which rises in vapour, strikes against the dome, and trickles down again
into the saucer. Henry has not yet watered it once since the day it was
made, but he will do so as soon as he sees it beginning to look dry, for
ferns grow best in a moist soil and damp air.
And now I have reached the end of my story. There is little in it but an
account of what Henry and his father saw in the course of a few hours,
on the sea-shore. You too, if you like, may pick up shells and pebbles,
and see in them some of the wondrous works of God’s creation. If you do
not live near the sea, look for curious things by the river’s side, in
the woods, or in the hedges. They are everywhere, all differing one from
another, but alike leading us to admire the wisdom and goodness of God.
R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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