HELD FAST
The first that Mrs. Brown knew of what was happening was when a woman
near her screamed. Then this woman hurried down the sands to the edge of
the water in which Bunny, Sue, and a number of other children were
bathing.
Mrs. Brown had been talking to several women of the summer bungalow
colony near Bark Lodge, and one of these ladies had just remarked that a
new family had come to the hotel.
"It is Mr. and Mrs. Jonas Slater," Mrs. Brown was told. "They have a
little boy named Harry, about as old as your Bunny."
And just as Mrs. Blaney, who was telling this to Mrs. Brown, finished,
Mrs. Brown heard a woman scream and saw her run down to the water.
"That's Mrs. Slater now," said Mrs. Blaney. "I wonder what the matter
is."
"Her little boy was just knocked down by a big wave," said another woman
who had been sitting on the sand talking to Mrs. Brown. "Perhaps we had
better go and help her."
It was Harry Slater, the new boy to whom Bunny had been talking, who had
been knocked down and rolled over by the big wave. His mother, sitting
on the beach, had seen what had taken place. Then she had screamed and
had hurried down the sands.
But, as it happened, Bunny Brown was nearer at hand to give the needed
help. He and Sue were used to the big waves, which came in Christmas
Tree Cove only when one of the large excursion steamers stopped at a
nearby dock. The propeller of the steamer sent the waves rushing inshore
almost like the surf of the larger ocean outside.
"Oh, the wave knocked him down!" cried Sue, who had seen the mass of
water coming, and had held to Bunny while they turned a little and
jumped so they did not fall. "Look, Bunny, he's down in the water!"
"I know!" exclaimed Bunny! "I see him! I'll get him up!"
Bunny and Sue had lived so long in Bellemere near the water that, young
as they were, they knew the thing to do when people fall into or down in
the water is to get them out as soon as possible, in order that they may
not be smothered.
So, as soon as he had made sure that Sue was all right, Bunny leaned
down, and, catching hold of Harry Slater, the new boy, who was
floundering around under water, lifted him up. It was easy for Bunny to
do this, as a body in water weighs less than outside.
Thus Bunny easily lifted Harry up and held him on his feet, while the
new boy choked and gasped to get his breath. By this time his mother was
at the edge of the water, where the waves broke on the sand, and she was
just going to go in, all dressed as she was, for she did not wear a
bathing suit.
"Harry," cried Mrs. Slater, "mother is coming!"
"There isn't any need, lady!" said Duncan Porter, the life-saver who was
always on duty during the bathing hour. "I'll bring him in to you. But,
anyhow, Bunny has him safe."
The guard, who had been on another part of the beach, had run up when he
heard Mrs. Slater scream, and now he waded out and brought Harry to
shore in his arms. The new boy was more frightened than hurt, and was
soon all right again, though he coughed a little because of the water he
had swallowed.
"Oh, Harry Slater, you were nearly drowned!" cried some of the other
children.
"Oh, he wasn't in much danger," said the life guard. "I'd have had him
out in another second or two. But, as it was, Bunny Brown got him out of
the water all right."
"How can I thank you?" said Harry's mother, as she gave Bunny a hug, all
wet as he was, for he and Sue, with many other children, had followed
the life-saver to shore when he carried the choking, gasping new boy.
"Oh, it wasn't anything much!" protested Bunny, who did not like a fuss
being made over him. "The big wave just knocked him down, and I picked
him up."
"He's a brave and clever little boy!" said several ladies on the beach,
and if Bunny had not been so tanned and sunburned he might have blushed.
"It was a big wave knocked him down," said Sue. "One of the steamer
waves. You have to look out for 'em! I saw him go down and I yelled."
"You were both very watchful of Harry," said Mrs. Slater. "Your mother
should be proud of you children."
"There's my mother now," said Bunny, pointing to Mrs. Brown, who had
come down with a number of other women.
Thus it was that Bunny, Sue and the new boy became acquainted and Mrs.
Slater also formed a friendship for Mrs. Brown. Soon the excitement had
passed and the children were in bathing again, while their mothers
either bathed, too, or sat on the beach and talked. Bunny and Sue liked
Harry, and you may be sure the new boy was very thankful to Bunny Brown
for pulling him up out of the water.
"Do they have bigger waves in the ocean than the one that knocked me
down?" asked Harry, when the three children were once more having a
good time in the bathing pool.
"Oh, I guess they do!" cried Sue. "He should see some of the big waves,
shouldn't he, Bunny?"
"Well, I'd like to see 'em," said Harry, with a laugh. "But I wouldn't
want to be knocked down by 'em--not if they were bigger than the wave
that hit me."
"The waves in the ocean are ever so much bigger," went on Bunny. "And in
a storm they're twice as big."
"We were in a storm coming here," explained Sue. "We were on a boat and
it rocked like anything, didn't it, Bunny?"
"Yes, it rocked a lot," he agreed. "Come on," he called to his sister.
"Let's go over and dig clams."
"Where can you dig clams?" asked Harry eagerly. Anything about the
seashore interested him, as it was his first summer at the beach.
"They get hard clams away out in the cove," explained Bunny. "But soft
clams grow over there where the tide is out."
"Clams don't grow," declared Sue. "They aren't like apples."
"Yes, clams do grow," declared Bunny. "Else how could a little clam get
to be a big one. They grow over there, in that place where there isn't
any water," went on Bunny. "And when the tide is out we dig for 'em."
"I was up on my grandpa's farm once, and I helped dig for potatoes in
the ground," said Harry. "But I never dug for clams. I'd like to."
"We'll show you how," offered Bunny. "Mother lets us dig soft clams, and
she makes chowder of 'em. Come on, we'll go over and dig clams."
Harry was very glad of this chance for fun, and when Mrs. Brown had said
her two children might go, and when Mrs. Slater had also consented to
let her boy accompany his two new playmates, they set off.
"There isn't any water on the flats when the tide is out," said Mrs.
Brown. "Bunny and Sue often go there to dig clams, and we can see them
from here."
Soft clams are not like hard clams. The shell is a sort of bluish black
and is quite thin, so it is easily crushed. The soft clam is long and
thin, instead of being almost round, like a hard clam.
A soft clam lives down in the mud or sand under water. Within his shell
the soft clam has a long tube, which seems as if made of rubber, for it
can be stretched out greatly, or made so small as to fit inside the
shell.
When the tide covered the low flats at one part of Christmas Tree Cove
the soft clams could not be found. But when the tide went out it left
bare a large space of sand and sticky mud, or muck. Then was the time to
dig soft clams.
Bunny and Sue knew how to do it. They used a little shovel, though a
regular clammer uses a short-handled hoe, digging the wet earth away
much as a farmer digs away the earth from a hill of potatoes. Down under
the surface the clams are found.
"Here's a good place to dig," said Bunny, as he led Sue and Harry
through little pools of water to the clam flats. "Sue, you hold the
basket and Harry and I will dig."
"Well, this time I will, 'cause Harry's new," answered Sue. "But after
this I'll dig, too."
Bunny had brought two shovels, and, giving the new boy one, Sue's
brother used the other. He dug a hole in the mucky, black sand, and
Harry did likewise.
"When you see something that looks like a black stone pick it up,"
advised Bunny. "'Cause that's a clam."
The two boys dug away for some time, and at last Harry cried:
"I got one!"
"Yes, that's a soft clam, and a nice big one," declared Bunny. "And I've
got one myself!"
Soon the two little boys had found a number of clams, which they put in
the basket Sue held. Bunny was just digging out an extra large one when,
all of a sudden, Sue cried:
"Bunny, I'm stuck! I can't get my feet up! Oh, Oh!"
"Maybe a big clam has hold of her," said Harry. "What'll we do, Bunny?"