LITMIR.BIZ

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to teach you.”

      “Oh, oh, oh, Nellie!” screamed Mrs. Bobbsey. “Where is she? She has gone under that wave!”

      Sure enough, Nellie had disappeared. She had only let go the ropes one minute, but she had her back to the ocean watching Nan’s rescue, when a big billow struck her, knocked her down, and then where was she?

      “Oh,” cried Freddie. “She is surely drowned!”

      Hal struck out toward where Nellie had been last seen, but he had only gone a few strokes when Bert appeared with Nellie under his arm. She had received just the same kind of toss Nan got, and fortunately Bert was just as near by to save her, as Hal had been to save Nan. Nellie, too, was laughing and out of breath when Bert towed her in.

      “I felt like a rubber ball,” she said, as soon as she could speak, “and Bert caught me on the first bounce.”

      “You girls should have ropes around your waists, and get someone to hold the other end,” teased Dorothy, coming out with the others on the sands.

      “Well, I think we have all had enough of the water for this morning,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, too nervous to let the girls go in again.

      Boys and girls were willing to take a sun bath on the beach, so, while Hal and Bert started in to build a sand house for Freddie, the four girls capered around, playing tag and enjoying themselves generally. Flossie thought it great fun to dig for the little soft crabs that hide in the deep damp sand. She found a pasteboard box and into this she put all her fish.

      “I’ve got a whole dozen!” she called to Freddie, presently. But Freddie was so busy with his sand castle he didn’t have time to bother with baby crabs.

      “Look at our fort,” called Bert to the girls. “We can shoot right through our battlements,” he declared, as he sank down in the sand and looked out through the holes in the sand fort.

      “Shoot the Indian and you get a cigar,” called Dorothy, taking her place as “Indian” in front of the fort, and playing target for the boys.

      First Hal tossed a pebble through a window in the fort, then Bert tried it, but neither stone went anywhere near Dorothy, the “Indian.”

      “Now, my turn,” she claimed, squatting down back of the sand wall and taking aim at Hal, who stood out front.

      And if she didn’t hit him—just on the foot with a little white pebble!

      “Hurrah for our sharpshooter!” cried Bert.

      Of course the hard part of the trick was to toss a pebble through the window without knocking down the wall, but Dorothy stood to one side, and swung her arm, so that the stone went straight through and reached Hal, who stood ten feet away.

      “I’m next,” said Nellie, taking her place behind “the guns.”

      Nellie swung her arm and down came the fort!

      “Oh my!” called Freddie, “you’ve knocked down the whole gun wall. You’ll have to be—”

      “Court-martialed,” said Hal, helping Freddie out with his war terms.

      “She’s a prisoner of war,” announced Bert, getting hold of Nellie, who dropped her head and acted like someone in real distress. Just as if it were all true, Nan and Dorothy stood by, wringing their hands, in horror, while the boys brought the poor prisoner to the frontier, bound her hands with a piece of cord, and stood her up against an abandoned umbrella pole.

      Hal acted as judge.

      “Have you anything to say why sentence should not be pronounced upon you?” he asked in a severe voice.

      “I have,” sighed Nellie. “I did not intend to betray my country. The enemy caused the—the—downfall of Quebec,” she stammered, just because the name of that place happened to come to her lips.

      “Who is her counsel?” asked the Judge.

      “Your honor,” spoke up Dorothy, “this soldier has done good service. She has pegged stones at your honor with good effect, she has even captured a company of wild pond lilies in your very ranks, and now, your honor, I plead for mercy.”

      The play of the children had, by this time, attracted quite a crowd, for the bathing hour was over, and idlers tarried about.

      “Fair play!” called a strange boy in the crowd, taking up the spirit of fun. “That soldier has done good service. She took a sassy little crab out of my ear this very day!”

      Freddie looked on as if it were all true. Flossie did not laugh a bit, but really seemed quite frightened.

      “I move that sentence be pronounced,” called Bert, being on the side of the prosecution.

      “The prisoner will look this way!” commanded Hal.

      Nellie tossed back her wet brown curls and faced the crowd.

      “The sentence of the court is that the prisoner be transported for life,” announced Hal, while four boys fell in around Nellie, and she silently marched in military fashion toward the bathing pavilion, with Dorothy and Nan at her heels.

      Here the war game ended, and everyone was satisfied with that day’s fun on the sands.

      CHAPTER X

      The Shell Hunt

      “Now, all ready for the hunting expedition,” called Uncle William, very early the next morning, he having taken a day away from his office in the city, to enjoy himself with the Bobbseys at the seashore.

      It was to be a long journey, so Aunt Emily thought it wise to take the donkey cart, so that the weary travelers, as they fell by the wayside, might be put in the cart until refreshed. Besides, the shells and things could be brought home in the cart. Freddie expected to capture a real sea serpent, and Dorothy declared she would bring back a whale. Nellie had an idea she would find something valuable, maybe a diamond, that some fish had swallowed in mistake for a lump of sugar at the bottom of the sea. So, with pleasant expectations, the party started off, Bert and Hal acting as guides, and leading the way.

      “If you feel like climbing down the rocks here we can walk all along the edge,” said Hal. “But be careful!” he cautioned, “the rocks are awfully slippery. Dorothy will have to go on ahead down the road with the donkeys, and we can meet her at the Point.”

      Freddie and Flossie went along with Dorothy, as the descent was considered too dangerous for the little ones. Dorothy let Freddie drive to make up for the fun the others had sliding down the rocks.

      Uncle Daniel started down the cliffs first, and close behind him came Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Emily. Nan and Nellie took another path, if a small strip of jagged rock could be called a path, while Hal and Bert scaled down over the very roughest part, it seemed to the girls.

      “Oh, mercy!” called Nan, as a rock slipped from under her foot and she promptly slipped after it. “Nellie, give me your hand or I’ll slide into the ocean!”

      Nellie tried to cross over to Nan, but in doing so she lost her footing and fell, then turned over twice, and only stopped as she came in contact with Uncle William’s heels.

      “Are you hurt?” everybody asked at once, but Nellie promptly jumped up, showing the toss had not injured her in the least.

      “I thought I was going to get an unexpected bath that time,” she said, laughing, “only for Mr. Minturn interfering. I saw a star in each heel of his shoe,” she declared’ “and I was never before glad to bump my nose.”

      Without further accident the party reached the sands, and saw Dorothy and the little ones a short distance away. Freddie had already filled his cap with little shells, and Flossie was busy selecting some of the finest from a collection she had made.

      “Let’s dig,” said Hal to Bert. “There are all sorts of mussels, crabs, clams, and oysters around here. The fisheries are just above that point.”

      So

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