“Upon my word, that’s pretty!” said the Captain.

“A pretty thing, too, faith,” said Gary.  “Captain, let’s get nearer the performers.  Look out, now, and don’t strike to windward.”

They went, like hunters, softly down the bank, keeping under shelter, and winding round so as to get near before they should be seen.  They succeeded.  Daisy was intent upon her sand-work again, and June’s back was towards them.  The song went on more softly; then in a chorus Daisy’s voice rang out again, and the words were plain.

  “Die in the field of battle,
   Die in the field of battle,
   Die in the field of battle,
     Glory in your view.”

“Spirited!” whispered Gary.

“I almost think it is a Swedish war song,” said the Captain.  “I am not sure.”

“Miss Daisy!”—­said June—­“the gentlemen—­”

Daisy started up.  The intruders came near.  On the ground beside her lay an open map of Europe; in the sand before her she had drawn the same outlines on a larger scale.  The shore generally was rough and pebbly; just in this little cove there was a space of very fine sand, left wetted and adhesive by the last tide.  Here the battle of Inkermann had been fought, and here Daisy’s geography was going on.  Capt.  Drummond, who alone had the clue to all this, sat down on a convenient stone to examine the work.  The lines were pretty fairly drawn, and Daisy had gone on to excavate to some depth the whole area of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and the region of the Atlantic to some extent; with the course of the larger rivers deeply indented.

“What is all this gouging for, Daisy?” he said.  “You want water here now, to fill up.”

“I thought when the tide came, Capt.  Drummond, I could let it flow in here, and see how it would look.”

“It’s a poor rule that don’t work both ways,” said the Captain.  “I always heard that ‘time and tide wait for no man;’ and we won’t wait for the tide.  Here Gary—­make yourself useful—­fetch some water here; enough to fill two seas and a portion of the Atlantic Ocean.”

“What shall I bring it in, if you please?”

“Anything!—­your hands, or your hat, man.  Do impossibilities for once.  It is easy to see you are not a soldier.”

“The fates preserve me from being a soldier under you!” said Gary—­“if that’s your idea of military duty.  What are you going to do while I play Neptune in a bucket?”

“I am going to build cities and raise up mountains.  Daisy, suppose we lay in a supply of these little white stones, and some black ones——­”

While this was done, and Daisy looked delighted, Mr. McFarlane seized upon a tin dipper which June had brought, and filled it at the river.  Capt.  Drummond carefully poured out the water into the Mediterranean, and opened a channel through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, which were very full of sand, into the Black Sea.  Then he sent Gary off again for more, and began placing the pebbles.