Talila, off with you and your babies." And the next moment
there was a general scamper of brown children headed by this tall,
vacant-looking woman. "Take the lady to the sea," continued Lisetta. And
Mae arose, as if in a dream, and followed them.
The half-clad children of the sun ran before her as she had dreamed they
would; flowers sprang up along the way, but she did not stop to pluck a
single bud or turn to look at anything. She wandered on in an awful
sort of fright and came at length to the water's edge. Here there
were row-boats lying at anchor, into which the children clambered. Mae
stepped into one of them and sat down in the stern, and looked about.
All was as she had planned. Her day of heaven was here. She tried to be
brave. O, she tried very hard. She wanted to love and enjoy the sea, and
think beautiful thoughts. She roused a little and stretched herself out
to catch the sunbeams in her eyes, as she had said she would. How warm
they were. An umbrella would be a luxury--and a book! But these belonged
to the world she had left so far behind her.
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