"Oh, never you fear, father, I've done it all half an hour ago, and I've found the most capital bed of clams just round the point here; and you take care of Mara there, and make up a fire while I dig 'em. If she comes, she'll be sure to wet her shoes, or spoil her frock, or something." "Wal', she likes no better fun now," said the Captain, watching Sally, as she disappeared round the rock with a bright tin pan. He then proceeded to construct an extemporary fireplace of loose stones, and to put together chips and shavings for the fire,--in which work little Mara eagerly assisted; but the fire was crackling and burning cheerily long before Sally appeared with her clams, and so the Captain, with a pile of hemlock boughs by his side, sat on a stone feeding the fire leisurely from time to time with crackling boughs. Now was the time for Mara to make her inquiries; her heart beat, she knew not why, for she was full of those little timidities and shames that so often embarrass children in their attempts to get at the meanings of things in this great world, where they are such ignorant spectators. "Captain Kittridge," she said at last, "do the mermaids toll any bells for people when they are drowned?" Now the Captain had never been known to indicate the least ignorance on any subject in heaven or earth, which any one wished his opinion on; he therefore leisurely poked another great crackling bough of green hemlock into the fire, and, Yankee-like, answered one question by asking another. "What put that into your curly pate?" he said. "A book I've been reading says they do,--that is, sea-nymphs do. Ain't sea-nymphs and mermaids the same thing?" "Wal', I guess they be, pretty much," said the Captain, rubbing down his pantaloons; "yes, they be," he added, after reflection. "And when people are drowned, how long does it take for their bones to turn into coral, and their eyes into pearl?" said little Mara. "Well, that depends upon circumstances," said the Captain, who wasn't going to be posed; "but let me jist see your book you've been reading these things out of." "I found it in a barrel up garret, and grandma gave it to me," said Mara, unrolling her handkerchief; "it's a beautiful book,--it tells about an island, and there was an old enchanter lived on it, and he had one daughter, and there was a spirit they called Ariel, whom a wicked old witch fastened in a split of a pine-tree, till the enchanter got him out. He was a beautiful spirit, and rode in the curled clouds and hung in flowers,--because he could make himself big or little, you see." "Ah, yes, I see, to be sure," said the Captain, nodding his head.