GIRLIE found the Wallypug sitting on a little heap of sand under the cliff, when she reached the shore, whither she had followed the others from the Station. He was stuffing some paper into his crown to make it fit more comfortably. “I am just wondering, your Majesty,” he remarked when she came up to him, “whether it would be considered quite dignified of me to paddle.”
Girlie could not remember ever having heard of a king paddling before, and told him so.
“No, perhaps I’d better not,” he said regretfully; “we might build a sand castle, though, mightn’t we?” he suggested, after considering a minute.
148“Oh yes,” assented Girlie, clapping her hands, “that would be fun.”
So they set to work to build a large one. Girlie found a nice flat piece of wood to dig with, and the Wallypug had brought a little tin pail, which, he said, he always carried with him when he went to the seaside.
While they were digging the moat Girlie told him about the Alphabet and what had happened in the train.
“I quite liked that S,” she said, “she was so kind and forgiving.”
“Yes,” said the Wallypug, “almost everything that begins with S is kind; look at the Sea, for instance, see how kind and sympathetic that is.”
Girlie couldn’t quite see what he meant, so she asked him to explain.
“Well,” he said, carefully moulding some little sand towers for the top of the Castle, “I found it very sympathetic when I told my troubles to it.”
“Why, what did it do?” asked Girlie curiously.
“It sighed, your Majesty, the sea sighed,” he said; “wasn’t it kind of it?”
“Very,” laughed Girlie. “I wonder why the sea is so salt,” she asked presently; “do you know?”
“It’s the fish, I expect, your Majesty,” said the Wallypug.
149“The fish,” exclaimed Girlie; “why, what have they to do with it?”
“Well, most fish are salt, you know,” said the Wallypug; “haddocks, kippered herrings, codfish, anchovies and some kinds of sprats; they are all salt.”
“Oh yes, so they are,” said Girlie; “I wonder I never thought of that before.”
They were getting on nicely with the sand castle, and, presently, the Wallypug suggested that they should look for some shells to put around it. So they wandered down nearer to the sea and were looking about for the shells, when an Ancient Mariner came up to them and, pulling a lock of hair that hung down over his forehead, said in a gruff voice, “Fine day for a sail, gentlefolks.”
“Yes, it is,” replied Girlie.
“Would you like to go, your Majesty?” asked the Wallypug.
“Very much indeed,” said Girlie delightedly, for she was very fond of the water.
“How much do you charge?” asked the Wallypug of the Ancient Mariner.
“Sixpence a head,” said he.
“Very well, we’ll go, then,” said the Wallypug.
The Ancient Mariner touched his forelock again and 150muttered something about “going to fetch the horse and cart.”
“What does he mean?” asked Girlie.
“Oh! we always go to sea in a cart here,” said the Wallypug.
“Not in a boat?” asked Girlie in surprise.
“Oh dear no, your Majesty,” said the Wallypug, “they are so dangerous, you know, and are always getting capsized. Now, you’ve never heard of any one’s being shipwrecked in a cart, have you?” he went on.
“No,” said Girlie, “I never have, certainly, but it does seem a funny way to go to sea, doesn’t it?”
“Not at all,” said the Wallypug. “Haven’t you ever been to sea in a cart before?” he asked.
“No, that I haven’t,” said Girlie.
“How used you to get to your bathing-machines at Broadstairs?” asked the Wallypug.
“Well, we did go out to them in a cart when the tide was low, certainly,” said Girlie, wondering however the Wallypug knew that she had been to Broadstairs.
“Very well, then, you have been to sea in a cart,” said the Wallypug; “I thought you had.”
“But not right out,” argued Girlie.
“It’s all the same, your Majesty,” remarked the 151Wallypug; and at this moment the Ancient Mariner returned leading a very lean horse harnessed to a clumsy-looking waggon with low seats running along each side of it, and with steps at the back, like a bathing-machine.
“All aboard, please,” he sang out, climbing up into his seat and cracking his whip.
Girlie and the Wallypug scrambled up the steps, and the Ancient Mariner held out his hand for the fare, which he said he must have before starting.
The Wallypug paid him from his little store in the handkerchief, and they were just driving into the sea, when they heard a voice calling from the shore,—
“Hi! hi! stop, ship ahoy, there!” and, turning round, they beheld a very stout woman with a baby in her arms running towards them, and Girlie noticed, to her great dismay, that it was the Porter’s wife.
“The Bathing-machine Woman,” said the Ancient Mariner. “All right, Mum, we’ll wait for you; don’t flurry yourself,” he called out.
The Bathing-machine Woman continued to run and at last reached them. Climbing breathlessly up the steps, she threw herself down on the seat, panting heavily.
152“Where do you want to go to, Mum?” asked the Ancient Mariner.
“Home,” panted the Bathing-machine Woman, pointing to a bathing-machine a long way out.
 
“‘HI! HI! STOP, SHIP AHOY, THERE!’”
“That will be sixpence,” said th............