nt
afterwards. Susie often said things like that, and it was rather
a comfort that Amy was always quite ready to be forgiven.

"It is so beautiful here, Amy; and I dare say they are not being naughty
really. They only hope we are looking; but I'm not going to."

She resolutely turned her back upon the boys and the strip of pebbles.
But Amy could not keep still; her eyes kept turning nervously to the
sturdy jersey-clad figures, and presently she nudged Susie again.

"They've got the box, Susie. You can't think how deep the water is, and
it looks so horrid; and Dick has a cold."

"Oh, don't bother," said Susie.

"Mother said you were to look after them, because you are the eldest,"
urged Amy.

"Why weren't one of you the eldest?" said Susie crossly. "I've been the
eldest all my life, and I'm tired of it. Mother knows I can't manage
them."

Without turning her head she knew that Amy was creeping again across the
strip of pebbles. She heard her foot slipping, and the shouts of the boys
when she reached them; then Amy's soft little frightened voice--and
then silence.

* * * * *

An hour later Mrs. Beauchamp was sitting on the little balcony outside
the drawing-room window. The sky was divinely blue, and the sun was
dazzling. Close to her feet was a basket of stockings that needed
darning, but she felt as if she must lay her needle down every now and
then, to look at the gray, glittering sea, and the shifting crowd upon
the beach. Her feet ached with perpetual running up and down stairs; but
she was glad to think that the children were happy and good. In the room
across the passage she could hear nurse singing Alick to sleep, and down
in the street below a funny little procession was winding up from the
sea. She rose and looked over the balcony on to the tops of two sailor
hats, and what looked like two soaking mushrooms. She stared at them
stupidly, wondering why the box they dragged behind them was so familiar,
and why they left such a long wet trail behind them.

After them sauntered a few idle fishermen; but just for a minute she
could not grasp what had happened. Then she pushed the basket on one side
and ran to the drawing-room door.

Up the stairs came the hurried rush of feet, with the box bumping from
stair to stair. Then the dripping family clung about her with soaked
garments, and hair that looked like seaweed.

"Mother, change us, please, before nurse sees us."

"But