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"When they have grown up big and strong," said Mary one morning, as she weeded the bed, "and when they have budded and blossomed and faded away again, then papa and my brothers will come home. And I shall call the cockle-shells papa, for they are the biggest and strongest; and the dingle-bells shall be brother Hobart, and the cowslips brother Robart.
Next morning, when he awoke, he thought he'd go to the fair and buy a lot of things, and he went to the box to get some of the gold, but found it full of cockle-shells.
"And do you know the dingle-bells that grow near the edge of the wood?" he asked again. "I know them well, papa," replied Mary, "for often I gather their blue blossoms and put them in a vase upon the table." "And how about the cockle-shells?"
The love of danger, the thirst for adventure, the thrilling sense of personal responsibility and human dignity not the base love for land and lucre were the governing sentiments which led those bold Dutch and English rovers to circumnavigate the world in cockle-shells, and to beard the most potent monarch on the earth, both at home and abroad, with a handful of volunteers.
The Bessy for so Ben Tripper had named his bawley, after his favourite sister was lying on the mud just above Leigh. A fishy smell pervaded the air, for close by were the boiling-sheds, with their vast heaps of white cockle-shells. These were dug by the cocklers either from the sand at the end of the Canvey Island or on the Maplin Sands somewhere off Shoebury.
The love of danger, the thirst for adventure, the thrilling sense of personal responsibility and human dignity not the base love for land and lucre were the governing sentiments which led those bold Dutch and English rovers to circumnavigate the world in cockle-shells, and to beard the most potent monarch on the earth, both at home and abroad, with a handful of volunteers.
As he and his friend went into the dark mill they could hear sounds of people running about, but by the time they lit up the mill again there was nobody to be seen, but scattered all about the millstones and on the floor were cockle-shells.
A few fish swam about lazily, otherwise an unbroken silence reigned in the Sea-city. Far away, at the end of the wide sanded road, a great marble palace towered over the surrounding houses; and as the Princess neared it she saw that the doors were wide open. She walked in fearlessly, and found herself in a large hall, with walls entirely covered with cockle-shells.
Mary did not reply to this, but sat down and began to weep, feeling at the same time that her mother was right and it was her own fault for being so contrary. While she sat thus the Squire rode up, and called to her "Fie, Mary, fie! Why do you cry; And blind your eyes to knowing How dingle-bells and cockle-shells And cowslips all are growing?"
The tune he knew, and as he passed through the first room towards the sitting-room that looked on the sea he caught a line: "Wely, wely, but love is bonny, for a little while when it is new." It was an old English ballad, the ballad of the "Cockle-shells," that Edith used to sing often in the old days, when its note of melancholy seemed best to express her happiness.
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