REALLY, no pleasanter place was to be found than down at Sandy Point, where Tellef lived. The shabby gray hut stood among and wild cherry trees on a small green plot, and if you went up on the back of the house you could get a wide view of the glorious open sea.  
Tellef and Johnny Blossom had been friends ever since that time long ago when they had had a fight and he had broken Tellef’s fishpole, and then had given him the two half-dollars he had got from Uncle Isaac. Never since had they been anything but the best of friends.
 
Another thing that was pleasant about going to Tellef’s was that no one there talked to him about being heir of Kingthorpe and all that. He was sick of that subject now.
 
And yet there was something sad, too, at Tellef’s house, for Tellef’s grandmother was blind. Just think! When she went out of doors she had to keep her hand on the house and walk that way, going round and round it; and that looked so queer. Sometimes she would sit right down on the grass and cry because she could not see; and somehow it seemed especially sad that she should cry with those sightless eyes.
 
“Aren’t you glad that you can see?” said Grandmother to the boys one day. “Don’t you thank God every day for your good eyes?”
 
No, Johnny Blossom had never thought of such a thing. He shut his eyes tight so as to know how it would seem to be blind. Oh, dear, it must be dreadful! Think of everything being dark—always, always dark!
 
One day he and Tellef took the grandmother up on the knoll. She longed to feel the salt wind blowing directly from the water, she said. So there she stood, with her gray hair tossing about her wistful old face, and with her sightless eyes turned toward the sea.
 
“It was very kind of you boys to bring me up here,” said Grandmother. “Oh, if I could only see the water! Is it smooth and bright?”
 
“Yes, it is like a mirror, Grandmother,” answered Tellef.
 
“Are there many ships in sight?”
 
“Yes, there goes a steamer to the east, and a beautiful boat lies right near here, and far out there is sail after sail.”
 
“Far out?” asked Grandmother.
 
“Yes, far out against the sky.”
 
“Far out against the sky,” repeated Grandmother, staring with her sightless eyes. Then she sat down to rest, with her hands folded under her and her face still turned seaward, while Tellef and Johnny Blossom played about in the heather.
 
“It must be dreadful to be blind,” said Johnny to Tellef.
 
“Yes,” said Tellef, tearing up bits of heather and tossing them away. “It is Grandmother has in her eyes.”
 
“Is it?” said Johnny.
 
When they joined Grandmother again, she said: “It would be almost too much to ask of any one, but if the master of Kingthorpe were alive, I do believe I should have the courage to ask him for money enough to go and have my eyes operated upon, so that if possible I might see the ocean again.”
 
Then they took Grandmother carefully down the hill, one boy on each side of her.
 
“Now that was kind of you,” said Grandmother as she sat once more on the slope in front of the house.
 
Johnny Blossom dashed homeward over the hill, bounding his swiftest so as to get home soon, for he had thought of something he was eager to carry out. If the master of Kingthorpe were alive Grandmother would ask him for money, she had said. Well, but really—he, Johnny Blossom, was master of Kingthorpe now, so he must, of course, attend to it. And he knew how he could do it. He would sell the fishing rod Uncle Isaac had given him—it cost an awful lot of money, Miss Melling had said—and Grandmother should have all he got for it. And his collection of coins—he would sell that, too. It ought to bring a lot of money—those old two-shilling pieces were so curious; and there was the English coin—my! that was worth ever so much!—and the queer old medal.
 
Wasn’t there something else he could sell so that Grandmother should see the ocean and everything again? Oh, of course—all those books about Indians; they must be worth a good deal and he had at least twelve of them. And his collection of eggs! Why, yes! They were beautiful eggs, and rare, many of them. To be sure almost every one was broken a little on one side. That didn’t matter a bit when they were placed nicely in a box, but perhaps people who bought eggs would rather have them whole. Well, the fishing rod was valuable, anyway.
 
Johnny Blossom was as red as a peony from his swift running when he dashed in upon his mother.
 
“Mother dear, can’t you sell that fishing rod for me that I got from Uncle Isaac?”
 
“Sell your fishing rod? Indeed, you must not think of such a thing.”
 
“Oh, yes, I must. I must. And my coin collection— rare, some of the coins are, really; and my egg collection, too—there are three perfectly whole eggs in it, at the very least, and”—
 
“But why in the world should you sell all these things?”
 
“Oh, so that—so that—I tell you what, Mother, it is dreadful to be blind.”
 
Mother stared in blank .
 
“And Tellef’s grandmother says that if the master of Kingthorpe were alive, she would ask him for money to go and have her eyes operated on. It costs frightfully, you see, Mother, and I ............