ined, and barked a
gruff goodbye; but Quick informed them that he intended going also, took
matters into his own hands, and started to run down the road ahead of
the wagon.

After much arranging, talking, and laughing, two wagon-loads of people,
rubber boots, fishing tackle, and other things, started toward the
shore, a farm hand going with each team to drive the horses back.

"Miss Olive, honey!" called Mammy Bun as they were starting, "don' you
let de chillen eat too many o' dem clams what has de long necks; dey is
powerful full o' cramps." And Olive promised that she would be very
careful.

When they reached the shore, they found everything ready for them.
Olaf's little home, which contained four tiny rooms, was as clean and
compact as a ship's cabin. There was a kitchen, one room for Olive and
Dodo, one for the Doctor, and another for Rap's mother; while Olaf, Nat,
and Rap were to sleep close by in a tent made of poles, canvas, and pine
boughs. Several boats were drawn up on the beach, by a creel of nets and
some lobster pots, while Olaf's sharpie was anchored in deep water a
little way offshore.

It was late when the horses turned homeward after leaving their loads;
it had been a beautiful afternoon, neither too warm nor too cool. "Oh!"
exclaimed Dodo, "now that the horses have gone, the good time will
begin; for we can't go back even if we want to."

The children amused themselves for some time in looking at their new
quarters, and then in watching Olaf row out to light the beacon lamps.
When it grew dusk they had supper, wondering at the strange stillness of
the evening; for, though it was usually very quiet at the Farm, they had
never before known the silence that falls with the twilight on a shore
where the water does not rush and beat as on the ocean beaches, but
simply laps lazily to and fro, like the swinging of a hammock.

Presently the stars began to give good-evening winks at the
beacons--first one, then another and another, until the whole sky
twinkled; while one evening star, the brightest of them all, hurried
along the west as if it were trying to overtake the sun, and knew that
it was fully half an hour behind the jolly god of day.

"See how the tide is coming in," said Rap, when they returned to the
beach. "When Olaf went out, he had to push his boat ever so far, and now
the water is almost up to the line of seaweeds and shells."

"I wonder what makes the water go in and out?" questioned Dod