6 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 
to the child, and, seeing her love for the sea, it 
was she who had called her Undine; and Un.- 
dine she had become to every one saving her 
father. To him she was always Gertrude, and 
the name fell from his lps with a caressing 
tenderness as if he spoke to the sweet mother 
in heaven as well as to the child upon earth. 
Tom’s little sister was as frail as he was 
sturdy, and to alleviate the child’s weariness 
when constrained to lhe for months among her 
pulows, Miss Bremely wove her tales of the 
sea. At one time it was arune of the North- 
men, terrible with dragon ships, jétuns, and 
stormy seas, but beautiful with love and valor. 
At another it was a bit of classic lore made so 
simple and charming that Undine forgot her 
pain and longed for the time when she could 
read such wonderful stories herself. But even 
more fascinating than these were the descrip- 
tions of coral groves through which the Undine 
of Fouqué’s charming stories walked, and the 
gardens, fathoms down, where gay-tinted flow- 
ers of the sea unfolded their delicate frondlike 
branches, independent alike of sunshine and 
shower. 
She had wondered why such gardens grew 
far from any mortal sight, and Miss Bremely 
answered : 
