Cricket at the Seashore

had told this, if any child wanted more, he simply had to tell it over again. It was a story with a moral, and was drawn from Billy's own experience. It was about a bad little boy

e, an' didn't do a mite o' good. And just think, children," finished Billy, solemnly, "when that bad, naughty, s

istened with w

" questioned Zaidee, looking in

ground, puzzled, now, what to say. He was not very clear, himself.

ght specks is at night. I guess them's holes in the floor. Can't see 'em daytimes, you know, when the

n ju

ground might crack, Billy, and we'd fall in. Ple

o poke the ground with great i

?" she asked, excitedly. "Oh, Helen, let's

e at all. Dunno as it is, dunno as i

and that's the sand-banks. They're s

aid, anxiously, "I wouldn't. Fol

demande

an lives round them parts,"

id timid little Helen, clinging to Zaidee's h

g than her delicate littl

" she conceded. "We'll dig very slowly when we get pr

us boy-visitor had taken and eaten all Billy's peppermints, and he never forgot it. He always took occasion to tell it as a st

children," he repeated, anx

uctant Helen with her. They selected a nice hollow place in the sand, and began to dig furiously. In a few minutes they ha

getting hotter, H

hand down, rat

ot, Zaidee, and don'

y a little bit hot. We must dig until it's ever so much hotter

n the sides. I'll have to get in

Zaidee with both hands. "Don't go down there. You might

gging, sturdily, while Helen, frightened and apprehensive,

there! oh, you'll hit him in a minute, and he'll jump up!" for "Mr. Satam," and Indian

ambled up

ropped from a sea-gull's wing, and buried under the drifting sand, but the startled children never doubted that it was gr

knowing what dreadful thing might happen any moment. He started ba

e seldom called the children by their names. "

, Billy? Why, how

es is a-doin' a dretful thing. They're over by the sand-bank, a-diggin' fu

g out. "You know better than that. Where are they? I'm

ttle shamefaced a

ing relieved. "I don't really know just where 'tis, myself.

d things, and nothing ever happens, unless they cave in, or something like that, which doesn't count," said C

ooked c

llow was never anything but a boy in his own eyes. "See here, do

et curious, by the hole, caught sight of them coming.

ad Place and we've most found it, and there's a feather of Mr. Satam'

bled up wit

an, I guess. That's nothing but some bird's feather. I

insisted Zaidee, "an' Billy

ing up, you know, but I don't think you'll get far enough to get scorched any. Y

until Cricket had jumped into the hole

another hole, right here. I'll dig this big one out more, and I'll be an incubus"-meaning nobody kno

of their pet amusement, dug away merrily, while Bil

re. She enlarged the hole the children had begun, till it was quite an excavation, carrying on her game of "incubus" with the children all the time. At last she concluded to sit down and rest. She planted herself in the bott

est she should lose the object, which might prove what she was sea

," she cried. "Dig me out

into the hole, then set

ful possibilities of that hole. Zaidee instantly jumped in, however, and, screaming, herself, added her small strength to pull up Cricket's arm, while Billy, startled by this sudden hubbub, ran distrac

isn't anybody down there, but I've got hold of something and I don't want to lose it. Just dig down around my arm, that's all. Stop crying, Helen. That's a goo

unged both hands under the object, and, if you'll believ

y. "It's mamma's bag, children, that she planted ever so l

igh to be ever overflowed by the tides, and were very dry, even to the depth of many feet. But the string

ith the twins toiling on behind. Auntie Jean and grandma were sitting on the porc

triumphantly. "Knew I would. W

zement, hastily transferring the heap to a newspap

ried so long ago in the sand-banks, because you thou

ost found him, an' Cricket came an' said he'd gone to China, an' then Cricket digged this up, and we're going

ich had been found to have mamma's initials on it. Therefore, auntie's was still unfound, and, strange to say, it never has been fou