There were neither logs nor large stones; for the beach, as well as the adjacent shore, was composed of fine drift sand, and no trees seemed to have fallen near the spot.
"I have it!" exclaimed Henry, after puzzling his brains a bit, his eye guiding him to a settlement of the difficulty.

"The shells--the big oyster shells--the very things for us to sit upon, sister Nell." As he spoke, he stooped down and commenced turning over one of the shells of the immense bivalve--both of which had been hitherto lying with their concave side uppermost.

It was nigh as much as the boy, still weak, could do to roll it over, though Helen, seeing the difficulty, laid hold with her little hands and assisted him.
Both the huge "cockles" were speedily capsized; and their convex surfaces rising nearly a foot above the level of the ground, gave the young people an excellent opportunity of getting seated.
Both sat down--each upon a shell--laughing at the odd kind of stools thus conveniently provided for them.
They had not been long in their sedentary attitude, when a circumstance occurred which told them how unsafe a position they had chosen.

They were conversing without fear, when Henry all at once felt something strike him on the arm, and then, with a loud crash, drop down upon the shell close under his elbow, chipping a large piece out of it.
His first impression was that some one had thrown a stone at him.

It had hit him on the arm, just creasing it; but on looking at the place where he had been hit, he saw that the sleeve of his jacket was split, or rather torn, from shoulder to elbow, as if a sharp-tooth curry-comb had been drawn violently along it.