it was early in november, but if you had lain by nan's side on the beach basking in the sunshine you would scarcely have guessed it. the air was mild and warm, and there were no trees near to betray what sad havoc blustering fall winds had made with the foliage. old ocean was as blue and still as in midsummer, with just a single line of breakers falling at regular intervals on the hard white beach. nan was fairly glorying in the june-like day, feeling there could hardly be such another till june herself should have come round again. the boys had gone off for the afternoon on some sort of an expedition, never so much as asking her to accompany them, but she was not sorry to be left at home. she was one of those little people who, like some big people, loved to have a chance for a quiet think now and then, and lying there by herself she was supremely happy and tranquil. she had been there fully an hour, and for a while had been busy building a little castle in the sand, making a foundation of clam shells, and using an old bottle for a tower.
most of the time she had been “just thinking,” and thinking so hard that she did not notice some one coming nearer and nearer until, suddenly looking up, her eyes met those of a stranger. she was a pretty little picture lying there flat on the sand, with her dimpled face propped comfortably between her hands.
“i wonder what you are thinking about, my little friend,” said the new comer, kindly. “i know from your face that your thoughts are happy thoughts?”
“pretty foolish ones, i guess you'd call them!” laughed nan, for there was something about the stranger that at once won her confidence.
“i'm not so sure of that,” he answered; “but a stranger has no right to ask you what they were, so good-bye, my little dreamer.”
“i wish you would not go,” said nan, sitting up and smoothing out her dress; “i would like to talk to you, because i think you look like a minister, and i never spoke to a real minister before.”
“well, you shall now,” he answered, sitting down beside her, “for you have guessed rightly, and for that matter there is nothing the minister would rather do than talk to you for a while.”
there was a little pause, and then nan asked hesitatingly, as though she feared to seem rude, “you don't belong about here, do you?”
“no, but i almost wish i did. i love the sea with all my heart, so that i have hard work to keep from saying something about it in every sermon i preach. but if i do not belong about here, it is very certain that you do. you must have lived by the ocean week in and week out, to get that shade of blue into your eyes.”
“that's what reginald says!” laughed nan.
“and who is reginald?”
“why, reginald fairfax; he's staying with us while his father and mother are in europe. the poor little fellow broke his leg last summer, and sister julia is here too, to take care of him, but he's almost well now. i wish you knew sister julia. she comes from one of the great hospitals in new york, and she is the loveliest person you ever saw.”
“well, i should say i did know her,” answered the minister. “she goes to my church in town, and so do mr. and mrs. fairfax; and regie and i are the best of friends.”
“why, are you mr. vale?” queried nan, astonished, for the name of the young minister had often been on regie's lips.
“yes, i am,” he answered, laughing, as though he must own up to the truth.
“but what are you doing here?”
“well, i'll tell you. do you see that red-tiled cottage yonder?” pointing down the beach.
“do you mean mr. avery's?” for nan knew the name of every resident in the neighbourhood of moorlow.
“yes; mr. avery is a friend of mine, and stays down here, you know, quite late into the fall, so he asked me to bring my sister, who is quite an invalid, to his cottage, thinking the change would do her good. so here we are; we came this morning, but i am obliged to go back to the city again this afternoon.”
“oh, dear! i'm sorry for that,” said nan, regretfully, “i would so much have liked to hear you preach.”
“well, that is very kind of you. perhaps you can some time, when you come to new york to visit regie. by the way, where is he?”
“oh, he's off with my brother harry this afternoon, and i don't believe they'll be home before supper time.”
“that's too bad, but i shall probably see him the next time i come.”
“oh, you are coming again then!” exclaimed nan, her face brightening.
“yes, surely. once a week, at least, so long as my sister stays. and now, suppose you tell me something about yourself. your name is——”
“nannie—nannie murray,” answered nan.
“and you live——”
“in that brown cottage behind us there on the bluff,” nodding her head in the direction of the house.
“and you have lived there always?”
“yes, sir,” she replied, proudly.
“then you are a fortunate little maiden. to have grown up by the sea is something to be very thankful for. it seems a pity to live in town when one loves the sea and open country as much as i do.”
“why don't you come down here?” urged nan. “there are plenty of houses.”
“but the bother of it is there are plenty of people in town, and the preacher must stay near the people. it is more beautiful and wonderful, you know, to be able to help a soul struggle up toward high-water mark, than even to watch the tide come in as we are doing. but i think i must be talking quite over your head. now that we are friends, perhaps you will not mind telling me what you were thinking about when i so rudely interrupted you?”
“do you see that schooner, away off there?” nan answered. “well, when you came it was right in front of me, and i was pretending it was sailing away to a beautiful island with a crowd of poor city children on board, who had never been very well, or had a very happy time, and i pretended they were already beginning to look fresh and rosy with the salt breeze blowing in their faces; and i made believe that some of the children had a glass, and were looking here at me on the beach, and that some of them thought i was a mermaid, and others a queer sort of a fish. now i suppose you think those were pretty foolish thoughts, don't you?”
“not a bit of it. it is like a fairy story, only better. but before you began to build a castle in the air, i see you built a little one here in the sand. i suppose you have peopled this with a lot of queer little people of your own too.”
“no,” said nan, honestly, “i don't make up things much, except when i am just looking out to sea.”
“have you ever thought, nan,” said mr. vale, earnestly, as he banked up a falling wall of her castle with his hand, “that your own life is a sort of little castle, wonderfully made, richly furnished, beautiful and hopeful to look upon? it is fitting that only one should live in that fair house—he who is purity and goodness and truth himself. ask him to come and dwell within you, to look out of your eyes, to hear with your ears, to speak through your lips, to guide your hands and your feet.”
“you mean jesus, don't you?” asked nan, looking frankly into his face with sweet simplicity.
“yes, my little friend, i do.”
“well, it is just like a sermon.”
“but you said, you know, that you would like to hear me preach.”
“yes, i did,” answered nan, thoughtfully, gathering up a handful of sand and letting it sift through her fingers, “and i like your preaching; i like it very much indeed.”
“thank you,” and mr. vale looked as though he deeply appreciated nan's honest praise; “but it is high time the preacher was off. there is the train whistle now! give my love to regie, and i shall surely run over to see him next week when i come down.”
nan watched her new friend hurrying away to the station, and stood transfixed till a low sand-hill hid him from sight. then she scampered to the house to tell of her good fortune.
as soon as regie came home, and while he was making a hurried toilet for supper, nan ran into his room, and curling herself up on the window-box, commenced, for the third time (for sister julia and mrs. murray had already been favoured), to give an excited narration of the afternoon's experiences.
“oh, regie!” she began, “i've had the most splendid time—a good long chat with a real live minister. he came from the city, and he told me the nicest things, sort of preached, you know; and he loves the sea just as much as i do, and his sister is staying up at the averys', so he's coming again. he's a young minister, regie, and he has the loveliest face.”
“i don't like men with lovely faces,” said regie, scornfully.
“well, you'd like his face, regie. it was like a great strong angel's face, and he told me he knew you, and for me to give you his love, and to tell you that when he came again he would surely come and see——”
“you don't mean mr. vale, do you?” cried regie
“that's just who i do mean,” nan answered, complacently.
“oh, dear me! why wasn't i round? are you sure he's coming again?”
“sure,” said nan, wondering if it was selfish to be glad that just this once regie had not been “round” at all, and that she had the young; clergyman quite to herself.
