The children walked through the beach grass and sat on the sand.
“Jessie, look at that!” cried Benny, pointing. As he spoke, a stream of water shot out of the sand. But Henry did not stop to say how pretty it was. “Clams!” he shouted. He jumped up and took a stick from the beach. The rest of the children and the dog ran to watch Henry as he began to dig. Sure enough, he took a real clam from the wet hole.
“Oh, I wish I had a shovel!” cried Henry. “There are lots of clams here. See that hole, and that!”
“Let’s run up and get two big spoons and the dishpan,” cried Jessie. They raced for the tools, leaving Benny and Violet with the stick. When they came running back, they found that Benny had dug out another clam.
“I am going to keep mine,” said Benny, very pleased with himself. “It is such a pretty purple color.”
“You can put all yours together into this pan, Benny,” said Jessie, giving him a saucepan. “You won’t want to keep them when you find out how good they are to eat.”
The children took off their shoes and set to work.
“There’s another!” cried Benny. “I can’t dig fast enough.”
Watch seemed to know what was going on. He stood still a minute watching Benny dig with the stick. Then he began to dig too, with his paws.
“Good old Watch!” cried Benny. “You can do all my digging if you want, and I will take the clams out for you.” As if he really did understand, the dog waited for Benny to show him where the clam was. Then he began to dig again. The older children laughed to see the sand fly under his paws, but they were very glad to see the pan fill up.
“I suppose these are for dinner tomorrow,” said Henry, as he threw a clam on the pile.
“Yes,” said Jessie. “These will keep all right here. We can cover them all over with seaweed.”
“I think we have enough,” said Henry, looking at the pan. He went to the water and pulled out a lot of wet seaweed. He spread this carefully over the clams.
“I wish we knew what was around that next point,” he said. “Let’s find out.”
“We’re exploring now, Benny,” said Violet. “You must keep your eyes open.”
Benny’s eyes were certainly open when he went around the point. In the water near the beach was a little raft.
“Oh, I know that Grandfather fixed this place for us to swim in!” said Benny.
“Of course he did,” said Henry. “The water here can’t be over my head, but it is deep enough for swimming.”
The children explored until three o’clock. Then they all agreed to go swimming, and went to their rooms to put on their suits. When they came back to the beach, they all walked together into the water.
“Cold!” said Benny, walking out again. “I like warm water.”
“That’s because you’re not in all over,” said Jessie, laughing. “You just watch Henry, and you’ll soon like it.”
They all watched Henry as he went quickly into the water and began swimming hand over hand to the raft. Watch swam along beside him.
“It’s great!” Henry shouted, as he sat on the raft “Come on out, Jessie.”
“I will, just as soon as I get Benny in,” she called back. “You’ll never be warm unless you go in all over, Benny.” But Benny would not go in. He sat in his swimming suit, throwing stones into the water. Violet was down the beach, looking for seaweed. She said she would stay with Benny while Jessie swam out to the raft. As Jessie and Henry sat with their feet in the water, they saw a man coming.
“It’s Joe!” said Henry. It was Joe, and he was wearing a swimming suit.
Henry watched as Joe came along the beach and sat down beside Benny.
“How is the water today?” asked Joe.
“It’s awfully cold,” replied Benny. “It’s ice melted.”
“I guess that’s because you haven’t been in all over,” said Joe, smiling.
“Yes, that’s what Jessie says,” said Benny.
“That is called rockweed,” said Joe suddenly, as Violet picked up a long piece of brown seaweed. “There are beautiful seaweeds around here. See this dark green one on the sand? And here’s another red one. Look! There is a piece of it in that wave!” Joe went into the water, and Violet followed him.
“Oh, there it goes!” she cried. “We’ve lost it.”
Benny was standing up by this time, looking into the waves. He did not even feel the water washing over his feet. The seaweed came up on a wave and went down again. This time Benny went after it.
“I’ve got it!” he shouted. He was right. He had caught the red seaweed, and he was wet all over.
“Good for you, Benny!” said Joe with a smile. “Let me take it a minute.”
“Here,” said Benny, handing the seaweed to Joe. He did not know that he was standing in melted ice.
“Say, I have an idea,” said Joe. “Float the seaweed like this in water. Then pick it up by putting a piece of writing paper under it and spread out the feathery branches with a pin.”
“Will the seaweed stay on the paper?” asked Violet.
“Yes,” said Joe. “There is something in the seaweed that makes it stick to the paper when it is dry. Then you can use the paper for writing letters.”
“Oh, I’d like that,” cried Violet, “but I’d also like to make a seaweed collection!”
“Fine!” said Henry, for he and Jessie had come back from the raft to see what was going on. “You can write down the names of the seaweed and make a little book.”
“That will be hard to do. There aren’t many everyday names for seaweed,” said Joe.
“You know lots of things, don’t you, Joe?” said Benny.
The three older children agreed, for they had seen how clever Joe had been in getting Benny into the cold water without his knowing it.
After they had dressed and were sitting down to supper, Henry was thinking about Joe. Later, when he was in bed, he thought, “Joe is a very strange handy man, to know the names of the different kinds of seaweed.” |