CAUGHT BY THE TIDE
Ever since they had come to Cousin Tom's, at Seaview, the six little
Bunkers had hoped to find some treasure-trove on the beach. That is,
Russ and Rose and Vi and Laddie did. Margy and Mun Bun were almost too
little to understand what the others meant by "treasure," but they liked
to go along the sand looking for things.
At first, when the children came to the shore, they had hoped to dig up
gold, as Sammie Brown had said his father had when shipwrecked. But a
week or so of making holes in the sand, and finding nothing more than
pretty shells or pebbles, had about cured the older children of hoping
to find a fortune.
"Instead of finding any gold we lost some," said Rose, as she thought of
her pretty locket, which, she feared, was gone forever.
But now, when Russ came running in, telling about a big box being cast
up on the beach, his mother did not know what to think. The children had
heard her read stories about shipwrecked persons, who found things to
eat, and things of value, cast up on the sands, and she knew Russ must
imagine this was something like that.
"Hurry, Mother, and we'll see what it is!" cried the little boy, and
taking hold of her hand he fairly dragged Mrs. Bunker along the path
toward the beach.
"What sort of box is it?" the little boy's mother asked.
"Oh, it's a wooden box," Russ answered eagerly.
"Well, I didn't suppose it was tin or pasteboard," said Mrs. Bunker with
a laugh. "A tin box would sink, and a pasteboard box would melt away in
the water. Of course I know it must be of wood. But is it closed or
open, and what is in it?"
"That's what we don't know, Mother," Russ answered. "The box has a cover
nailed on it, and it isn't so very big--about so high," and Russ
measured with his hands.
"Did you open the box?" asked Mrs. Bunker.
"No'm," Russ answered. "We were all playing on the sand when I saw
something bobbing up and down on the waves. We threw stones at it, and
then it washed up on the beach, and I ran down into the water and
grabbed it.
"Maybe it's gold in it, Laddie says," went on Russ. "But I told him it
wasn't heavy enough for gold."
"No, I hardly think it will be gold," said his mother with a smile.
"And Vi thinks maybe it's her doll," went on the little boy.
"Oh, it hardly could be that. Her doll is probably at the bottom of the
ocean by this time. It could hardly have been got up and put in a box.
I'm afraid you will find nothing more than straw or shavings in your
treasure-trove, Russ. Don't count too much on it."
"Oh, no, but we're just hoping it's something nice," Russ said. "You go
on down where the box is and I'll go get a hammer from Cousin Tom so we
can open the box."
He led his mother to a little hummock of sand, from the top of which she
could look down and see the children gathered on the beach about a
square wooden box that had been cast up by the sea. Then Russ ran back
to get the hammer.
Mrs. Bunker looked at the box. There seemed to have been some writing on
a piece of paper that was tacked on the box, but the writing was blurred
by the sea water and could not be read.
"Oh, Mother! what you s'pose is in it?" asked Vi. "My doll, maybe!"
"No, I hardly think so, little girl."
"Maybe gold," added Laddie, his eyes big with excitement.
"No, and not gold," said Mrs. Bunker.
"Candy?" asked Margy, who had not one sweet tooth, it seemed, but
several.
"Pop-corn balls!" said Mun Bun.
"Huh! candy and pop-corn balls would all be wet in the ocean," exclaimed
Laddie.
By this time Russ came running back with the hammer. Behind him came
Cousin Tom, Cousin Ruth and Daddy Bunker.
"What's all this I hear about a million dollars being found in a box on
the beach?" asked Daddy Bunker with a laugh.
"Well, there's the box," said Russ, pointing. "Please open it."
"I wonder what can be in it," said Cousin Ruth.
"Oh, maybe nothing," replied her husband, who did not want the children
to be too much disappointed if the box should be opened and found to
hold nothing more than some straw or shavings for packing.
"Lots of boxes that are cast up on the beach have nothing in them," said
Cousin Tom, as Daddy Bunker got ready to use the hammer on the one Russ
and the others had found.
"There is something in this box, all right," said Daddy Bunker, as he
lifted one end. "I don't believe this box is empty, though what is in it
may turn out to be of no use. But we will open it and see."
The six little Bunkers crowded around to look. So did Mother Bunker and
Cousin Tom and his wife. And then a very disappointing thing happened.
All of a sudden a wave, bigger than any of the others that had been
rolling up on the beach, broke right in front of the box resting on the
sand. Up the shore rushed the salty, green water.
"Look out!" cried Mother Bunker. "We'll all be wet!"
Daddy Bunker, not wishing to have his shoes soiled with the brine,
jumped back. So did the others. And, in jumping back, Mr. Bunker let go
his hold on the box, which he was just going to open with Cousin Tom's
hammer. And the big wave, which was part of the rising tide, just lifted
the box up, and the next moment carried it out into the ocean, far from
shore, as the wave itself ran back down the hill of sand.
"Oh! Oh, dear!" cried Rose.
"Grab it!" yelled Russ.
"I'll get it!" exclaimed Laddie.
He made a rush to get hold of the box again before it should be washed
too far out from shore, but he stumbled over a pile of sand and fell. He
was not hurt, but when he got up the box was farther out than ever.
Daddy Bunker looked at the water between him and the box, and said:
"It's too deep to wade and spoil a pair of shoes. And, after all, maybe
there is only a lot of old trash in the box."
"Oh, I thought maybe my doll was in it," sighed Violet.
"Can't you take your boat, Tom, and row out and get the box?" asked
Cousin Ruth.
"Yes, I could do that," he said. "I will, too! The water is calm, though
I can't tell how long it will stay so."
But before Cousin Tom could go back to the pier in the inlet, where the
boat was tied, the box was washed quite a distance out from shore. Then
the wind sprang up and the sea became rough, and it was decided that he
had better not try it.
"Let the box go," said Daddy Bunker. "I guess there was nothing very
much in it."
But the children thought differently. They stood looking out at the
unopened box, now drifting to sea, and thought of the different things
that _might_ be in it. Each one had an idea of some toy he or she liked
best.
"Well, we waited too long about opening it," said Mr. Bunker. "We should
have pulled the box farther up on the beach, Russ."
"That's right," said Cousin Tom. "The tides are getting high now, as
fall is coming on, and the tides are always highest in the spring and
the autumn. But maybe we can get the box back, after all."
"How?" asked Russ eagerly.
"Well, it may come ashore again, farther up the beach," replied Cousin
Tom.
"Then somebody else may find it and open it," Russ remarked.
"Yes, that may happen," said his father. "Well, we won't worry over it.
We didn't lose anything, for we never really had it."
But, just the same, the six little Bunkers could not help feeling sorry
for themselves at not having seen what was in the box. They kept
wondering and wondering what it could have been.
But a day or so later they had nearly forgotten about what might have
been a treasure, for they found many other things to do.
One afternoon Margy and Mun Bun, who had been freshly washed and combed,
went down to the wharf where Cousin Tom kept his boat.
"Don't get in it, though," warned their mother. "You were carried away
in a boat once, and I don't want it to happen again. Keep away from the
boats."
"We will!" promised Mun Bun and Margy.
When they reached the shore of the inlet Mun Bun said:
"Oh, Margy, look how low the water is! We can wade over to that little
island!"
"Yes," agreed Margy, "we can. We can take off our shoes an' stockin's,
an' carry 'em. Mother didn't tell us not to go wadin'."
And Mrs. Bunker had not, for she did not think the children would do
this. So Margy and Mun Bun sat down on the wharf and made themselves
barefooted. Then they started to wade across a shallow place in the
inlet to where a little island of sand showed in the middle. And Margy
and Mun Bun did not know what was going to happen to them, or they never
would have done this.