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NATALIE;

or,

A GEM AMONG THE SEA-WEEDS

By

FERNA VALE.

1859.



To thee, my darling Hattie, I dedicate the Sea-Flower
would that this casket contained for such as thou,
a purer gem.




PREFACE.


In writing the following pages the author has spent pleasant hours,
which perhaps might have been less profitably employed: if anything of
interest be found among them, it is well,--and, should any be led to
take up their Cross in meekness and humility, searching out the path
that leads the wanderer home, it is indeed well.






NATALIE.




CHAPTER I.


THE SEA-FLOWER.


  "What was it that I loved so well about my childhood's home?
   It was the wide and wave-lashed shore, the black rocks crowned with foam!
   It was the sea-gull's flapping wing, all trackless in its flight,
   Its screaming note, that welcomed on the fierce and stormy night!
   The wild heath had its flowers and moss, the forest had its trees,
   Which, bending to the evening wind, made music in the breeze;
   But earth,--ha! ha! I laugh e'en now,--earth had no charms for me,
   Nor scene half bright enough to win my young heart from the sea.
   No! 't was the ocean, vast and deep, the fathomless, the free,--
   The mighty rushing waters, that were ever dear to me!"

        ELIZA COOK.


  "But the goodly pearl which the merchant bought,
     And for which his all he gave,
   Was a purer pearl than will e'er be brought
     From under the FOAMING wave."

        H. F. GOULD.


"Massa Grobener! Massa Grobener! Please, sar, look here! De good Lord
hab left his mitest ob angels here on de beach; and please, sar, step
low or de wee bit will take to its wings and fly away. De good Lord be
praised! but old Bingo hab found many a bright sea-weed in his day, but
dis am de