Page:The New-Year's Bargain (1884).djvu/149

 "Bless me!" cried September, almost in a pet. "Rain-water tub, indeed! Why, child, if all the tubs in creation were put side by side, they wouldn't make a quarter of a sea! Quarter! they wouldn't make a millionth part! Now listen, while I tell you about it.

"It stretches miles and miles and miles. Get into a boat, and sail for weeks and months, still the shore lies beyond, and still you are at sea!

"It is blue as the sky, and beautiful silver dimples come and go over its face. Or at other times it is green, with waves fifty times the height of your hut, and they rise and fall, and break in foam white as milk. And, when the storms blow, it is black,—black as night,—and the sound of its roaring is like wild beasts over their prey.

"I love the ocean. He and I are friends, though almost every year we have a mighty quarrel, and the world rings with the noise. But afterwards we kiss and make up, and part affectionately.