I wonder whether you have ever seen the sea. If you have, you know it and
love it so well that there is no need for me to try to describe it to you.
If you have not, if your home has always been in the country among the
quiet fields, far away from the sound of the waves as they break upon the
strand; or if you have lived all your life in the town, where the streets
are full of noise and bustle, and busy folk hurrying to and fro--then I
think it would be almost as difficult for me to give you an idea of what
the boundless ocean is like, as it was for the kind miner to make his
little friend understand all about seas and lakes and rivers, as he talked
to him over that poor little pail of water, deep down in the dark mine.
Ah! you must see the great ocean-world for yourself; you must sail over the
crests of the waves, and learn to swim and dive. If you have never yet been
to the seaside, there is indeed a treat in store for you some day, and I
should like to be with you when that day comes, and catch a sight of your
face, so full of wonder and pleasure. I remember hearing of a little "city
sparrow" of a boy who was taken with a great many town children to spend a
long summer's day by the seaside. When he first came in sight of the bay,
with its bright, dancing waters, and saw the tide rolling in, wave after
wave, upon the yellow sands, he gave one long, satisfied look, and then
said, "How nice it is to see plenty of anything!"
Poor child, these words of his told their own touching tale; he had never,
in his parents' home, known what plenty was, and so his first thought about
the "great and wide sea" which God had made, was that there was enough of
it and to spare--no stint there, at any rate.
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