who at last broke the thrilling silence: "Where there's an
ocean? And where you can go wading and swimming?" she cried.

"And will there be sand?" asked Suzanna, hanging upon the answer
breathlessly.

"Yes, there's a wide yellow beach running into the ocean where you can
dig and build castles all day," said Mrs. Bartlett.

"Oh, my cup is full and runneth over," said Suzanna solemnly.

The train swept on through small towns and the children's delight and
amazement increased. And when at noon the climax came, and they all went
forward into the dining-car, they were one and all silent. No words
great enough were in their vocabulary to express this moment.

Said Mr. Bartlett when they were all seated: "Now, children, you may
order just exactly what you'd like. You first, Suzanna."

"Well," she said, without hesitation, "I should like some golden brown
toast that isn't burned, with lots of butter on it, and a cup of cocoa
with a marshmallow floating on top, and at the very last, a dish of
striped ice cream with a cherry right in the middle."

Mr. Bartlett wrote the order rapidly on a card. Each of the children
spoke out his deepest, perhaps his long-cherished desire. Some of the
dishes were secretly and mercifully modified by Mrs. Bartlett, who sat
in enjoyment of the scene.

"It's like a dream, Mrs. Bartlett," said Suzanna when, dinner finished,
they were all back once more in the parlor car. "You don't think we'll
wake up, do you?"

"No, I think not; you'll simply get wider and wider awake."

But, as the hours crept on and as she watched the flying landscape, the
reaction to all her excitement came and a haze fell over everything, and
she slept, to awaken some time later, full of contrition.

She spoke anxiously to Mrs. Bartlett: "Oh, I appreciated it all, Mrs.
Bartlett, but my eyes just closed down of themselves," she said.

Mrs. Bartlett smiled. "It's a long journey," she said, "but we'll soon
see the end of it."

At nine o'clock the train stopped for the first time since dark had
fallen. "Here we are," cried Mr. Bartlett. And in a few moments they
were all standing on the platform of a little railroad station waiting
while carriages were being secured to take them for the night to a hotel
nestling on the top of a tall hill.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE SEASHORE

Morning came--a rather misty morning that promised better as the day
advanced. Suzanna, sleeping with Maizie in a small room on the second
fl