? ? ? ? Nothing happened, however, worse than morning. Almost as soon as it shone upon the oyster-shell frame of my mirror I was out of bed, and out with little Em'ly, picking up stones upon the beach.
? ? ? ? 'You're quite a sailor, I suppose?' I said to Em'ly. I don't know that I supposed anything of the kind, but I felt it an act of gallantry to say something; and a shining sail close to us made such a pretty little image of itself, at the moment, in her bright eye, that it came into my head to say this.
? ? ? ? 'No,' replied Em'ly, shaking her head, 'I'm afraid of the sea.'
? ? ? ? 'Afraid!' I said, with a becoming air of boldness, and looking very big at the mighty ocean. 'I an't!'
? ? ? ? 'Ah! but it's cruel,' said Em'ly. 'I have seen it very cruel to some of our men. I have seen it tear a boat as big as our house, all to pieces.'
? ? ? ? 'I hope it wasn't the boat that -'
? ? ? ? 'That father was drownded in?' said Em'ly. 'No. Not that one, I never see that boat.'
? ? ? ? 'Nor him?' I asked her.
? ? ? ? Little Em'ly shook her head. 'Not to remember!'
? ? ? ? Here was a coincidence! I immediately went into an explanation how I had never seen my own father; and how my mother and I had always lived by ourselves in the happiest state imaginable, and lived so then, and always meant to live so; and how my father's grave was in the churchyard near our house, and shaded by a tree, beneath the boughs of which I had walked and heard the birds sing many a pleasant morning.
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