44 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 



charming stories, too, about tlie sea," ventured 

 Undine. 



" Oh, course Cousin Ellen's nice," responded 

 Tom; "but she can't go out and dig in the 

 shoals and dredge and dip like the doctor." 



Undine had no desire to depreciate their 

 good friend, for she, like Tom, had learned to 

 love him dearly, and w^as greatly interested in 

 vrhat he told them of the old sea's secrets. 



Dr. McLean was a faithful pastor and a 

 diligent student. His hours upon the strand 

 vpere his recreation, and the little dip net and 

 improvised dredge brought up for him many 

 things other than helices and hydroids. To 

 him the ocean with its vivid and changing 

 pages was full of the thoughts of God, and he 

 went down to its study reverently, with the 

 thought in his heart, "The sea is his and he 

 made it," and it thus became to him full of 

 sweet sermonry. 



To the boy and girl whose lessons had been 

 tossed to them by the waves in the shape of 

 shells and seaweeds, these implements — the dip 

 net and the dredge — opened a new world of 

 wonders. To the ignorant, the brine and mud 

 in the trawl would have disclosed only wrig- 

 gling bits of transparency, tiny beads of glass, 

 opaque or shining, atoms of quicksilver, and 



