Afar off in the remote distance of the beach , appearing like sea-nymphs , or some airier things such as might tread upon the feathery spray , was a group of girls . Hardly had I beheld them , when they passed into the shadow of the rocks and vanished . To comfort myself -- for truly I would fain have gazed a while longer -- I made acquaintance with a flock of beach-birds . These little citizens of the sea and air preceded me by about a stone 's - throw along the strand , seeking , I suppose , for food upon its margin . Yet , with a philosophy which mankind would do well to imitate , they drew a continual pleasure from their toil for a subsistence . The sea was each little bird 's great playmate . They chased it downward as it swept back , and again ran up swiftly before the impending wave , which sometimes overtook them and bore them off their feet . But they floated as lightly as one of their own feathers on the breaking crest . In their airy flutterings they seemed to rest on the evanescent spray . Their images -- long-legged little figures with gray backs and snowy bosoms -- were seen as distinctly as the realities in the mirror of the glistening strand . As I advanced they flew a score or two of yards , and , again alighting , recommenced their dalliance with the surf-wave ; and thus they bore me company along the beach , the types of pleasant fantasies , till at its extremity they took wing over the ocean and were gone . After forming a friendship with these small surf-spirits , it is really worth a sigh to find no memorial of them save their multitudinous little tracks in the sand . When we have paced the length of the beach , it is pleasant and not unprofitable to retrace our steps and recall the whole mood and occupation of the mind during the former passage . Our tracks , being all discernible , will guide us with an observing consciousness through every unconscious wandering of thought and fancy . Here we followed the surf in its reflux to pick up a shell which the sea seemed loth to relinquish . Here we found a seaweed with an immense brown leaf , and trailed it behind us by its long snake-like stalk . Here we seized a live horseshoe by the tail , and counted the many claws of that queer monster . Here we dug into the sand for pebbles , and skipped them upon the surface of the water . Here we wet our feet while examining a jelly-fish which the waves , having just tossed it up , now sought to snatch away again . Here we trod along the brink of a fresh-water brooklet which flows across the beach , becoming shallower and more shallow , till at last it sinks into the sand and perishes in the effort to bear its little tribute to the main .
Here some vagary appears to have bewildered us , for our tracks go round and round and are confusedly intermingled , as if we had XXXXX a labyrinth upon the level beach .
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