"By the time we get over there, Mr. Andrews, the tide will be down. Are you ready?" called Joe, rapping on the tent occupied by that gentleman and Mr. Lane.

"Yes; we will come directly. You need not wait."

"All right, sir.--Come on, boys. They'll come after. Who wants to race?"

"I do," cried Walter Martin. "Race open for all! No handicapping either. One, two, three! Luck to the fellow that happens to start ahead!"

Away went two score boys over the pasture, like a herd of wild deer, clearing the hillocks and patches of hemlock at a bound.

Dave got the lead, and, with Joe close at his heels, he reached the woods; and there discovering that they had the race to themselves, and the other boys calling "Time! time!" at the top of their voices, they both cried "Quits," and dropped together by a blueberry patch, where, as soon as they recovered breath, they began to pick and eat. They waited there until their companions came up; and then, tired of racing, the party sauntered lazily along, picking berries by the way.

"No John or Jerry here yet?" said Maurice Perry, as they came near the rendezvous.

"We can find the place easy enough though," said Ned Gould. "It was near that rock with a peaked top, John said."

The whole troop of boys leaped down from rock to rock along the boulder-strown shore, until they reached the rock spoken of as a landmark.

"I don't believe the tide is low enough," said Joe, peering into one pool after another. "Hullo! there are John and Jerry.--Hullo there! Come, find your 'puddle.' We can't."

"Good reason why. It's covered up with water. The tide isn't low enough. There it is, right there; but you've got to wait till the tide is down, and the water in the 'puddle' settles."

After a while, a standing-place on the outer edge of the pool was free from water, and as many of the boys as possible crowded upon it.

"You'd better get off that. A big wave will come and give you a duckin'," said John laughing.

The boys were hesitating whether to heed the advice, when a shout went up from the crowd higher up on the rocks.

"Jump! Quick! You'll be ducked!"

The shout gave the warning to some in time, and, leaping across the pool, they clambered up to a safe place; but others, stopping to look around and see what was the matter, were drenched by a huge incoming wave, that fairly took them from their feet and hurled them into John's "puddle," among the "live things" he had told them of.

There was a great shrieking, and sputtering, and splashing, as the boys emerged from their bath, wiser, if not sadder, for the experience.

When the teachers arrived, they found some half-dozen boys dressed in an exceedingly primitive style, while they wrung their clothes, and hung them to dry on the boulders.

"I told 'em not to go there," said John. "You can't hurry the tide out; it takes its own time, no matter how many folks is waitin'."

"'Time and tide wait for no man,'" suggested Maurice.

"Well, the rest of us will take warning, and keep where it is safe," said Mr. Andrews, striving to peer into the troubled waters of the pool.

After a few more waves had swept over, making the crowd run back in a lively way from the edge, John announced oracularly,--

"There, that's about the last. There won't be any more come over that strip of ledge on the other side; but you can't see nothin' till it gets settled."

He was right in his prophecy: no more rude waves chased them from their position, and gradually the water of the pool grew clearer and clearer, until some of its wonders could be plainly seen.

"I see an anemone!" cried Mr. Andrews.

"Yes, dozens of them. How beautiful--purple and yellow in every shade!" added Mr. Lane.

"What! those filmy-looking things against the sides?" asked Joe, lying flat on the rocks to see better.

"Yes; those are sea-anemones."

"See 'em shut up when I poke 'em," cried John, coming with a stick to show them off.

"No, no, John; not yet," cried Mr. Andrews, motioning him away. "We want to see them open. See them wave their tentacles in search of food! Ah, one fellow has a periwinkle eating!"

"You don't mean to say that soft-looking thing can eat that winkle!" exclaimed Dave.

"Yes, indeed, and very much larger things than that.--Let me take the stick, John."

Then touching one of the anemones with it in the gentlest way, he caused it to draw in its tentacles and shut up like a puckered bag, all beauty gone.

"Oh, leave the rest open!" cried the boys.

Mr. Lane stooped down, and, working carefully and perseveringly, detached one from the side of the rock, and offered it to Joe. But it was not an inviting-looking object out of its element; and Joe, shrinking back, said, "Thanks,--no jelly for me."

"Now look at the sea-urchins and star-fish," said Mr. Andrews, picking up a specimen of each. "See these spines, how stiff and unyielding they look."

"Only put him down bottom upward," interposed Jerry, setting one down that he held in his hand.

The boys crowded around and watched the curious creature as he slanted his spines until he brought them into position where he could move himself on them, and gradually bring himself right side up again.

The boys experimented with them and with the star-fish for a long time, and tried to spread the latter out to dry on the rocks; but by the time they had smoothed out the last ray the first would be curling up, con............