girlie found the wallypug sitting on a little heap of sand under the cliff, when she reached the shore, whither she had followed the others from the station. he was stuffing some paper into his crown to make it fit more comfortably.
“i am just wondering, your majesty,” he remarked when she came up to him, “whether it would be considered quite dignified of me to paddle.”
girlie could not remember ever having heard of a king paddling before, and told him so.
“no, perhaps i’d better not,” he said regretfully; “we might build a sand castle, though, mightn’t we?” he suggested, after considering a minute.
148“oh yes,” assented girlie, clapping her hands, “that would be fun.”
so they set to work to build a large one. girlie found a nice flat piece of wood to dig with, and the wallypug had brought a little tin pail, which, he said, he always carried with him when he went to the seaside.
while they were digging the moat girlie told him about the alphabet and what had happened in the train.
“i quite liked that s,” she said, “she was so kind and forgiving.”
“yes,” said the wallypug, “almost everything that begins with s is kind; look at the sea, for instance, see how kind and sympathetic that is.”
girlie couldn’t quite see what he meant, so she asked him to explain.
“well,” he said, carefully moulding some little sand towers for the top of the castle, “i found it very sympathetic when i told my troubles to it.”
“why, what did it do?” asked girlie curiously.
“it sighed, your majesty, the sea sighed,” he said; “wasn’t it kind of it?”
“very,” laughed girlie. “i wonder why the sea is so salt,” she asked presently; “do you know?”
“it’s the fish, i expect, your majesty,” said the wallypug.
149“the fish,” exclaimed girlie; “why, what have they to do with it?”
“well, most fish are salt, you know,” said the wallypug; “haddocks, kippered herrings, codfish, anchovies and some kinds of sprats; they are all salt.”
“oh yes, so they are,” said girlie; “i wonder i never thought of that before.”
they were getting on nicely with the sand castle, and, presently, the wallypug suggested that they should look for some shells to put around it. so they wandered down nearer to the sea and were looking about for the shells, when an ancient mariner came up to them and, pulling a lock of hair that hung down over his forehead, said in a gruff voice, “fine day for a sail, gentlefolks.”
“yes, it is,” replied girlie.
“would you like to go, your majesty?” asked the wallypug.
“very much indeed,” said girlie delightedly, for she was very fond of the water.
“how much do you charge?” asked the wallypug of the ancient mariner.
“sixpence a head,” said he.
“very well, we’ll go, then,” said the wallypug.
the ancient mariner touched his forelock again and 150muttered something about “going to fetch the horse and cart.”
“what does he mean?” asked girlie.
“oh! we always go to sea in a cart here,” said the wallypug.
“not in a boat?” asked girlie in surprise.
“oh dear no, your majesty,” said the wallypug, “they are so dangerous, you know, and are always getting capsized. now, you’ve never heard of any one’s being shipwrecked in a cart, have you?” he went on.
“no,” said girlie, “i never have, certainly, but it does seem a funny way to go to sea, doesn’t it?”
“not at all,” said the wallypug. “haven’t you ever been to sea in a cart before?” he asked.
“no, that i haven’t,” said girlie.
“how used you to get to your bathing-machines at broadstairs?” asked the wallypug.
“well, we did go out to them in a cart when the tide was low, certainly,” said girlie, wondering however the wallypug knew that she had been to broadstairs.
“very well, then, you have been to sea in a cart,” said the wallypug; “i thought you had.”
“but not right out,” argued girlie.
“it’s all the same, your majesty,” remarked the 151wallypug; and at this moment the ancient mariner returned leading a very lean horse harnessed to a clumsy-looking waggon with low seats running along each side of it, and with steps at the back, like a bathing-machine.
“all aboard, please,” he sang out, climbing up into his seat and cracking his whip.
girlie and the wallypug scrambled up the steps, and the ancient mariner held out his hand for the fare, which he said he must have before starting.
the wallypug paid him from his little store in the handkerchief, and they were just driving into the sea, when they heard a voice calling from the shore,—
“hi! hi! stop, ship ahoy, there!” and, turning round, they beheld a very stout woman with a baby in her arms running towards them, and girlie noticed, to her great dismay, that it was the porter’s wife.
“the bathing-machine woman,” said the ancient mariner. “all right, mum, we’ll wait for you; don’t flurry yourself,” he called out.
the bathing-machine woman continued to run and at last reached them. climbing breathlessly up the steps, she threw herself down on the seat, panting heavily.
152“where do you want to go to, mum?” asked the ancient mariner.
“home,” panted the bathing-machine woman, pointing to a bathing-machine a long way out.
“‘hi! hi! stop, ship ahoy, there!’”
“that will be sixpence,” said the ancient mariner. “babies in arms not charged for.”
“i’ve only got fourpence halfpenny,” said the bathing-machine woman.
“well, i can’t take you for that, you know,” said the ancient mariner.
“oh, i’ll pay the difference,” said the wallypug 153kindly, taking the last of his little store of coppers out of his handkerchief.
the bathing-machine woman thanked him, and the ancient mariner, after pocketing the money, cracked his whip again and off they started into the water.
for some time the water only came half-way up the wheels; but, after a time, when they got a little distance from the shore, the cart began to float and the horse to swim, and they rose up and down on the waves.
girlie did not feel in the least alarmed and quite enjoyed it; the sun glittered on the water and they floated merrily onward. presently she began to be aware that the bathing-machine woman was staring at her very curiously.
“i seem to know your face, somehow,” she said at last, frowning thoughtfully.
“do you?” said girlie, who did not feel at all inclined to tell her where they had met.
“yes, yours is such a pretty face, you know, my dear, that one cannot easily forget it,” said the bathing-machine woman, rocking her baby to and fro.
“oh, come, that’s much better,” thought girlie. “why, she seems to be quite amiable;” and she wondered what was coming next.
154no one spoke, however, for some time, and, at last, the wallypug proposed that somebody should sing a song.
“oh, yes, that would be lovely,” said girlie. “won’t you please sing something, ma’am,” she said to the bathing-machine woman.
“oh, i used to sing once, dear,” she replied, looking pleased at having been asked, “but i’ve no voice now; he’ll sing, if you ask him, though,” she continued, nodding her head towards the ancient mariner, and then going up to him and giving him a poke with her finger. “the young lady wants you to sing,” she shouted.
“i sing only one song and that you know,” he said, turning round.
“well, won’t you sing it now, please?” pleaded girlie.
“well, i will if you wish, miss,” said the ancient mariner. “it was written specially for me by a gentleman who came out in my horse and cart one day.” and, taking his pipe from his mouth, he began singing in a gruff voice the following song:—
“for ‘sixpence a head,’ the mariner said
he would take us an hour on the sea,
‘oh, sixpence a head’s very little,’ we said,
‘so we’ll all go aboard,’ said we
155
“‘i seem to know your face, somehow.’”
156“then ho! heave ho! the wild winds did blow,
and we none of us felt very jolly,
while the skipper persisted in spinning long yarns
about his old ship called the polly.
“yes! ‘sixpence a head,’ was all that he said,
when we started away from the shore,
but alas and alack, he refused to go back
till we all of us paid sixpence more.
“then ho! heave ho! the wild winds did blow,
and we none of us felt very jolly,
when we paid the old humbug just double his fare,
and deeply regretted our folly.”
they all clapped their hands when he had finished, and girlie laughingly said, “she hoped that he was not the mariner referred to in the song.”
“oh, yes, i am, miss,” he admitted, “but i sha’n’t ask any of you for sixpence more, d’ye see, for i know that you haven’t got it;” which was perfectly true, for girlie had none and the wallypug had given the last of his little store of coppers to make up the bathing-machine woman’s sixpence.
“oh dear! i’m afraid there’s going to be a squall, your majesties,” said the wallypug suddenly, looking with alarm at the bathing-machine woman’s baby, 157which was screwing up its face in a very ominous manner.
“broke loose and swam away.”
“bless me, yes, so there is!” said the ancient mariner, becoming greatly excited, jumping up on the seat and shouting out a lot of orders in a loud voice. “now then, belay there, hoist the main jib, hard-a-port, three sheets in the wind, shiver my timbers and blow me tight!” (i am grieved at having to record these terrible expressions, but i am sorry to say that sailors are not at all particular in their language when they get excited.)
the baby began to cry, the sea grew rougher and rougher every minute, and the cart tossed about in a most alarming manner.
girlie was rather frightened. “do you think there is 158any danger?” she asked of the wallypug, who was nervously clinging to the side of the cart.
“you are requested not to speak to the man at the wheel,” roared the ancient mariner, and, just then, the horse, which had been plunging about violently, broke loose and swam away, leaving the cart to float by itself.
the bathing-machine woman screamed and the baby squalled louder than ever.
“oh dear! oh dear! whatever shall we do now?” cried poor girlie, while the wallypug still clung to the side of the cart, looking very pale indeed.
“land ahoy, on the starboard side,” called out the ancient mariner presently, when an island came in sight to the right of them.
“there, now we are going to be cartwrecked, i suppose,” cried girlie, as they drifted towards it (for she thought that this must be the proper word to use under the circumstances). she was greatly relieved, however, to find that the cart, when they neared the island, rose quietly on a large wave, which lifted them gently on to the sand and then receded, leaving them high and dry on the shore.
