"The sound of the sea; that is a good thing.

Listen here, young gentleman, and tell me what the tiger say to you of the sea." He held the shell to the boy's ear, and saw the colour and the light come like a wave into his face.

They were silent for a moment; then the child spoke, low and dreamily.
"It doesn't say words, you know!" he said.

"It's just a soft noise, like what the pine-trees make, but it sounds cool and green and--and wet.

And there are waves a long way off, curling over and over, and breaking on white beaches, and they smell good and salt.