LITMIR.BIZ

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quite clean by the noisy waves.

      “Let’s open it,” said Hal. “Shall I, Nellie?”

      “Yes, if you want to,” replied the girl, indifferently, for she did not care about the little morsel. Hal opened it easily with his knife, and then he asked who was hungry.

      “Oh, see here!” he called, suddenly. “What this? It looks like a pearl.”

      “Let me see,” said Mr. Minturn, taking the little shell in his hand, and turning out the oyster. “Yes, that surely is a pearl. Now, Nellie, you have a prize. Sometimes these little pearls are quite valuable. At any rate, you can have it set in a ring,” declared Mr. Minturn.

      “Oh, let me see,” pleaded Dorothy. “I’ve always looked for pearls, and never could find one. How lucky you are, Nellie. It’s worth some money.”

      “Maybe it isn’t a pearl at all,” objected Nellie, hardly believing that anything of value could be picked up so easily.

      “Yes, it is,” declared Mr. Minturn. “I’ve seen that kind before. I’ll take care of it for you, and find out what it is worth,” and he very carefully sealed the tiny speck in an envelope which he put in his pocketbook.

      After that everybody wanted to dig for oysters, but it seemed the one that Nellie found had been washed in somehow, for the oyster beds were out in deeper water. Yet, every time Freddie found a clam or a mussel, he wanted it opened to look for pearls.

      “Let us get a box of very small shells and we can string them for necklaces,” suggested Nan. “We can keep them for Christmas gifts too, if we string them well.”

      “Oh, I’ve got enough for beads and bracelets,” declared Flossie, for, indeed, she had lost no time in filling her box with the prettiest shells to be found on the sands.

      “Oh, I see a net,” called Bert, running toward a lot of driftwood in which an old net was tangled. Bert soon disentangled it and it proved to be a large piece of seine, the kind that is often used to decorate walls in libraries.

      “Just what I wanted!” he declared. “And smell the salt. I will always have the ocean in my room now, for I can close my eyes and smell the salt water.”

      “It is a good piece,” declared Hal. “You were lucky to find it. Those sell for a couple of dollars to art dealers.”

      “Well, I won’t sell mine at any price,” Bert said. “I’ve been wishing for a net to put back of my swords and Indian arrows. They make a fine decoration.”

      The grown folks had come up now, and all agreed the seine was a very pretty one.

      “Well, I declare!” said Uncle William, “I have often looked for a piece of net and never could get that kind. You and Nellie were the lucky ones today.”

      “Oh, oh, oh!” screamed Freddie. “What’s that?” and before he had a chance to think, he ran down to the edge of the water to meet a big barrel that had been washed in.

      “Look out!” screamed Bert, but Freddie was looking in, and at that moment the water washed in right over Freddie’s shoes, stockings, and all.

      “Oh!” screamed everybody in chorus, for the next instant a stronger wave came in and knocked Freddie down. Quick as a flash Dorothy, who was nearest the edge, jumped in after Freddie, for as the wave receded the little boy fell in again, and might have been washed out into real danger if he had not been promptly rescued.

      But as it was he was dripping wet, even his curls had been washed, and his linen suit looked just like one of Dinah’s dish towels. Dorothy, too, was wet to the knees, but she did not mind that. The day was warming up and she could get along without shoes or stockings until she reached home.

      “Freddie’s always fallin’ in,” gasped Flossie, who was always getting frightened at her twin brother’s accidents.

      “Well, I get out, don’t I?” pouted Freddie, not feeling very happy in his wet clothing.

      “Now we must hurry home,” insisted Mrs. Bobbsey, as she put Freddie in the donkey cart, while Dorothy, after pulling off her wet shoes and stockings, put a robe over her feet, whipped up the donkeys, Doodle and Dandy, and with Freddie and Flossie in the seat of the cart, the shells and net in the bottom, started off towards the cliffs, there to fix Freddie up in dry clothing. Of course he was not “wet to the skin,” as he said, but his shoes and stockings were soaked, and his waist was wet, and that was enough. Five minutes later Dorothy pulled up the donkeys at the kitchen door, where Dinah took Freddie in her arms, and soon after fixed him up.

      “You is de greatest boy for fallin’ in,” she declared. “Nebber saw sech a faller. But all de same you’se Dinah’s baby boy,” and kind-hearted Dinah rubbed Freddie’s feet well, so he would not take cold; then, with fresh clothing, she made him just as comfortable and happy as he had been when he had started out shell hunting.

      CHAPTER XI

      Downy on the Ocean

      “Harry is coming today,” Bert told Freddie, on the morning following the shell hunt, “and maybe Aunt Sarah will come with him. I’m going to get the cart now to drive over to the station. You may come along, Freddie, mother said so. Get your cap and hurry up,” and Bert rushed off to the donkey barn to put Doodle and Dandy in harness.

      Freddie was with Bert as quickly as he could grab his cap off the rack, and the two brothers promptly started for the station.

      “I hope they bring peaches,” Freddie said, thinking of the beautiful peaches in the Meadow Brook orchard that had not been quite ripe when the Bobbseys left the country for the seaside.

      Numbers of people were crowded around the station when the boys got there, as the summer season was fast waning, so that Bert and Freddie had hard work to get a place near the platform for their cart.

      “That’s the train!” cried Bert. “Now watch out so that we don’t miss them in the crowd,” and the older brother jumped out of the cart to watch the faces as they passed along.

      “There he is,” cried Freddie, clapping his hands. “Harry! Harry! Aunt Sarah!” he called, until everybody around the station was looking at him.

      “Here we are!” exclaimed Aunt Sarah the next minute, having heard Freddie’s voice, and followed it to the cart.

      “I’m so glad you came,” declared Bert to Harry.

      “And I’m awfully glad you came,” Freddie told Aunt Sarah, when she stopped kissing him.

      “But we cannot ride in that little cart,” Aunt Sarah said, as Bert offered to help her in.

      “Oh, yes, you can,” Bert assured her. “These donkeys are very strong, and so is the cart. Put your satchel right in here,” and he shoved the valise up in front, under the seat.

      “But we have a basket of peaches somewhere,” said Aunt Sarah. “They came in the baggage car.”

      “Oh goody! goody!” cried Freddie, clapping his little brown hands. “Let’s get them.”

      “No, we had better have them sent over,” Bert insisted, knowing that the basket would take up too much room, also that Freddie might want to sample the peaches first, and so make trouble in the small cart. Much against his will the little fellow left the peaches, and started off for the cliffs.

      The girls, Dorothy, Nellie, and Nan, were waiting at the driveway, and all shouted a welcome to the people from Meadow Brook.

      “You just came in time,” declared Dorothy. “We are going to have a boat carnival tomorrow, and they expect it will be lovely this year.”

      Aunt Emily and Mrs. Bobbsey met the others now, and extended such a hearty welcome, there could be no mistaking how pleased they all were to see Harry and Aunt Sarah. As soon as Harry had a chance to lay his traveling things aside Bert and Freddie began showing him around.

      “Come

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