THE BOX ON THE BEACH
"Dear me!" exclaimed the children's mother, as she hurried along beside
Violet to help settle whatever trouble Russ had caused.
"Oh! did you hear what Rose said?" asked Vi. "Did you hear?"
"Yes, my dear, I did."
"Oh, my lovely doll is drowned!" cried the little girl, and there were
real tears in her eyes, and some even ran down her nose and splashed to
the ground. "I just knew Russ would be mean and tease me, and he did,
and now my doll is drowned and----"
"Well, it might better be a doll that is drowned and not one of my six
little Bunkers," said the mother. "Though, of course, _I_ am sorry if
any of your playthings are lost. Russ, did you drown Vi's doll?" she
called to her oldest son.
"I didn't mean to, Mother," was the answer. "I was giving the doll a
ride in a boat I made, and the boat got blown by the wind, and the wind
upset the boat, and the boat went under water, 'cause I had a cargo of
stones on it, and----"
"What happened to Vi's doll?" asked Mother Bunker. "Why don't you get to
that part of it, Russ?"
"I was going to," he said. "The doll fell off when the boat upset and
sank, and the doll sank, too, I guess."
"Is my doll really, really, drowned?" cried Violet.
"I--I'm afraid I guess so," stammered Russ. "But maybe I can fish her up
again when the tide is low," he added hopefully.
"Do it now," sobbed the little girl.
"The water's too deep now."
"Where did she get drowned?" asked Violet, gazing through her tears at
the waters of the inlet.
"The boat upset out there in the middle," said Russ, pointing.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Violet. "If she was my rubber doll maybe she wouldn't
be drowned. But she's my china doll, and they won't float, will they,
Mother?"
"No, my dear, I'm afraid not. How did it happen, Russ? Why did you take
Violet's doll?"
"'Cause I wanted to give her a ride, and I didn't think she would
care--I mean Vi. Course the doll didn't care."
"She did so!" exclaimed the little girl, stamping her foot on the sand.
"My dolls have got feelings, same as you have, Russ Bunker, so there!"
"Now children, don't get excited," said Mrs. Bunker gently. "Russ, you
shouldn't have taken Vi's doll."
"Well, I wanted to see how much my boat would hold, and I was playing
the doll was a passenger. I'll get it back for her. Cousin Tom will take
me out in his boat to the middle, and I can scoop the doll up with a
crab net."
Mrs. Bunker went with Russ and Violet to find Cousin Tom, leaving
Laddie, Rose, Margy and Mun Bun playing with pebbles and shells in the
sand.
Russ told Cousin Tom what had happened. The little boy had made a boat
out of a piece of board, with a mast and a bit of cloth for a sail. He
had loaded his boat with stones he had picked up on the beach of the
inlet, and had started his craft off on a voyage.
Violet had been playing near by with her doll, and when she put it down
for a moment Russ had taken the doll and put it on his toy boat.
Then he gave it a shove out into the Clam River, the wind blowing on the
sail and sending his toy well out toward the middle of the inlet. There
the accident happened. The boat turned over and sank. Perhaps if Russ
had only laid the stones on, instead of tying one or two large ones
fast, as he had, the boat might have floated, even though upset.
For if the stones had not been tied on they would have rolled off and
the boat would have righted herself and floated, being made of wood.
But, as it was, she sank.
"And my doll went down with it," said Vi sadly. "Please, Cousin Tom, can
you get her back?"
"I don't know, Violet. I'll see," was the answer. "The tide is running
out now, for it was high water a little while ago. If the boat sank
down to the bottom, and stayed there, we may be able to get it when the
water is low if we can see it."
"The sail is white, and you can see white cloth even under water," said
Russ.
"But I'm afraid the cloth won't stay white very long. The mud and sand
of the inlet will cover it," remarked Cousin Tom. "Did you tie the doll
on the boat, too, Russ?"
"No, I just laid the doll down on top of the stones."
"Then when the boat upset the doll rolled off, and she probably sank in
another place," said Mr. Bunker. "I don't believe we can ever find her,
Vi, I'm sorry to say, but I'll try at low tide."
"Would she be carried out to sea, like Mun Bun and Margy 'most was?" the
little girl wanted to know.
"She might, if the tide current was strong enough," said Cousin Tom.
"What kind of doll was she?"
"China," answered Vi. "She was hollow, 'cause she made a hollow sound
when you tapped her. And she had a hole in her back, and sometimes I
used to pour milk in there, and make believe feed her."
"Well, if your doll was hollow, and had a hole in her back, she probably
filled with water when she sank," said Cousin Tom.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Violet.
That evening, when the tide was low, so there was not so much water in
the inlet, Cousin Tom and Daddy Bunker, taking Russ with them to show
where his boat had upset, rowed out to the middle of Clam River. It took
them a little while to find the place where Russ had last seen his toy
boat, but finally they found it. Then, looking down into the water, they
peered about for a sight of the white sail.
"There it is!" suddenly cried Russ, as he leaned over the side of the
boat. "I see something white."
"Yes, I see it, too," said Daddy Bunker. "Perhaps that is the sail of
the sunken toy boat, and perhaps the doll is near here."
But when Cousin Tom put down the long-handled crab net and scooped up
the white object, it was found to be a bit of paper.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Russ. "I wish it was Vi's doll!" He felt bad about
the sorrow he had caused his little sister.
"We'll try again," said his father, and, after rowing about a bit and
peering down into the water, they saw something else white, and this
time it really was Russ's boat. Cousin Tom scooped it up in his crab
net, and when the stones which were tied on deck, were loosed, the boat
floated as well as ever, and the wind and sun soon dried the wet sail.
But, though they scooped with crab nets all about the place where they
had found the boat, they could not bring up Vi's doll.
"Oh, didn't you find her?" asked the little girl, when her father,
Cousin Tom, and Russ came back in the rowboat.
"No, dear, we couldn't find her," said Daddy Bunker.
"Oh, dear!" and Vi cried very hard.
"Never mind, I'll get you another doll," said her mother.
"They won't ever a doll be as nice as she was," sobbed Vi. "I--I just
lo-lo-loved her!"
They all felt sorry for Violet, and Russ said she could have his new
knife, if she wanted it. But she said she didn't; all she wanted was
her doll.
"Never mind," said Rose, trying to comfort her sister. "Maybe when I
find my gold locket, if I ever do, you'll find your lost doll. We've got
two things to hunt for now--your doll and my locket."
"But your locket is lost on land, and, maybe, if you dig in the sand
enough, you can find it," sobbed Violet. "But you can't dig in the
water!"
"Maybe she'll be washed up on the beach with the tide, same as the
driftwood and the shells and the seaweed are washed up," put in Russ.
"I'll look along the beach every day, Vi, and maybe I'll find your doll
for you."
This comforted Vi some, and she dried her tears. Then Laddie made them
all laugh by saying:
"I have a new riddle!"
"Is it about a doll?" asked Rose.
"No. It's about a cow."
"How can you make a riddle about a cow?" Russ demanded.
"Well, I didn't make this one up," said Laddie; "and it isn't like the
riddles I like to ask, 'cause there isn't any answer to it."
"There must be some answer," declared Violet. "All riddles have
answers."
"Well, I'll tell you this one, and you can see if it has," went on
Laddie. "Now listen, everybody."
Then he slowly said:
"How is it that a red cow can eat green grass and give white milk that
makes yellow butter?"
No one answered for a moment, and then Daddy Bunker laughed.
"That is pretty good," he said, "and I don't believe there is any answer
to it. Of course we all know a red cow, or one that is a sort of
brownish red, does eat green grass. And the milk a cow gives is white
and the butter made from the white milk is yellow. Of course that isn't
exactly a riddle, but it's pretty good, Laddie."
"And is there an answer to it?" the little boy asked.
"I don't believe there is," answered his father. "It's just one of those
things that happen. Did you make that up, Laddie?"
"No. Cousin Tom told it to me out of a book. But I like it."
Vi still sorrowed for her doll, and, in the days that followed, she
often walked along the beach hoping "Sarah Janet," as she called her,
might be cast up by the tide or the waves. Russ looked also, as did the
others, but no doll was found. Nor did Rose find her gold locket, though
many holes were dug in the sand searching for it.
One morning, after breakfast, when he had gone down on the beach to
watch the fishing boats come in, which he often did, Russ came running
back to the house, very much excited.
"What's the matter?" asked his mother. "Did one of the boats upset and
spill out the fishermen?"
"No'm, Mother. But a box washed up on shore, and it's nailed shut, and
it's heavy, and maybe Vi's doll is in it! Oh, please come down and see
the box on the beach!"