6 THE HALL OP 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 lips 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 lie for months among her 

 pillows, Miss Bremely wove her tales of the 

 sea. At one time it was a rune of the North- 

 men, terrible with dragon ships, jotuns, 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 Fouque'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 : 



