CHAPTER IV.

THE ROW ON THE WATER.

HE next morning Arthur felt all right; so he soon forgot all about his smoking, and he hoped that everybody else had done so too; but it was very disagreeable, when he walked along the beach next day, to hear the very same boatmen who had seen him the day before, laugh when he came near, and offer him a whiff of their pipes. The very smell of the tobacco made his head swim, and Jones, the fisherman who had helped him home, said kindly, There, don't let's chaff him, mates; he'll know better next time, I'm thinking.-Like to have a pull on the water, sir?'

'Oh yes; oh yes! Aunt Harriette, may we?' asked George.

Aunt Harriette said they might; and she no

sooner had said so, than all three of them jumped into a boat; but as the boat was hauled up upon the shingles, they had to jump out again as quickly ; and they thought they helped the men very much by trying to shove her down to the water.

( I may row, mayn't I?' asked Arthur of one of the men; for there were two in the boat.

'Can you, sir?' he asked, looking funnily at Arthur.

Better nor you can smoke, I hope?' said the man. 'Well, leastways you may try, youngster,' and Arthur took an oar.

But the very first stroke he caught a crab; that is, he merely skimmed the water with his oar, and fell backwards into the bottom of the boat.

Nobody could help laughing; for there was nothing to be seen of Arthur but his two boots sticking up in the air. When he got up he looked very angry, and his face was very red. Jones took the oar from him, and said, You're very free with your "of courses," young gentleman. know'd as you couldn't pull.'

I

So Arthur's pleasure was again spoilt by his self-conceit. He could not enjoy himself at all, for he fancied every time either of the men looked

C

at him, he was laughing at him, long after they had forgotten all about it.

After a time, Georgie called out at something that he saw in the water. It was some beautiful jelly-fish, as large as dessert-plates, and showing all sorts of bright colours in the sun. The children tried to catch some of them; but when Bessie raised one in her hand, she called out and quickly threw it away again, for it stung her fingers like a nettle. Then Jones raised one upon the palm of his hand; and although Bessie begged him not, because he would be hurt, the boatman did not seem to mind being stung, but only laughed, and held the jelly-fish in the sun. The curious part of it was, that after a little time the jelly-fish all melted away, as if it had been only jelly, and ran through Jones's fingers like water.

'Oh!' said Bessie, 'it cannot be alive. Fancy a live thing melting away in your hand!'

'Do you think it feels, Aunt Harriette?' asked George.

'I should think not much, my dear,' said Aunt Harriette; 'but I daresay it can feel that the warm sun is pleasant, as it turns and floats about in it; so do not destroy any more.'

Presently Aunt Harriette said to one of the boatmen, 'Is this a safe coast?'

'Well, mum!' said the man, laying down his oar, and spitting into the palm of his hand, at which Bessie laughed, which was rather rude of her; 'well, mum! I should say not. You see as there's a tidy strong under-current as sets hereabouts, and it needs to know the coast like to understand it.'

The children did not quite understand what the man said, but they stared at him and listened.

'If you take the water at the right tide,' said the boatman, 'why, well and good; there you are, mum; but it requires a good hand at an oar even then, I reckon. The tide sets uncommon

strong sometimes, it do.'

Aunt Harriette and the children were for an hour on the water, and then they turned back.

As George jumped out of the boat he stooped down to look at something amongst the pieces of rocks, and then he called out,-' Aunt Harriette, look here! Arthur, come! What is this little queer thing? Oh, there's a lot of them, dozens all over the stones; and they keep putting out their little tongues at me.'

'Them's barnacles, sir,' said Jones.

'What are they?

Bessie.

Are they alive?' asked

They are a sort of little fish, my dear. Yes;

they are alive. What should you say to our setting up a salt-water aquarium whilst you are here?' 'What's that?' asked George.

'Not know what an aquarium is, you duffer?' said Arthur.

Well, then, I don't.

riette ?'

What is it, Aunt Har

'Oh, Arthur will tell you, as he knows all about it,' said Aunt Harriette, laughing.

'Well,' said Arthur, it is a what-do-call-'em full of water and live things.'

'What is a what-do-call-'em?' asked George; ' and what sort of live things is it full of, Arthur?' 'Well, snails and thingumbobs of different kinds.'

'Really I am afraid Georgie will not learn much from your account of it, Arthur, though you are so very clever, my dear, so I think I had better tell him myself.'

Arthur saw that his aunt was laughing at him, so he moved away, while Aunt Harriette spoke to his brother and sister.

Aunt Harriette said, 'Arthur meant to say a tank, that is, a square box, made of anything that will hold water; generally it is made with glass sides, so that you can see everything inside it. It is filled with water and live things out of the