ot 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.

CHAPTER XVII

MAROONED

"That's a nice little island over there," said Mun Bun to Margy as they
waded along.

"Yes, it's a terrible nice little island," agreed his sister.

"An' we can camp out there an' have lots of fun."

"Oh, Mun Bun, catch me! I'm sinking down in a hole!"

"All right, I'll get you!" cried the little boy, and he grasped hold of
his sister's arm. She had stepped into a little sandy hole, and the
water came up half way to her knees. Of course that was not very deep,
and when Margy saw she was not going to sink down very far she was no
longer frightened.

"But I was scared till you grabbed hold of me," she said to Mun Bun. "Is
it very deep any more?"

"No, it isn't deep at all," the little boy answered. "I can see down to
the bottom all the way to the little island, and it isn't hardly over
your toenails."

The tide was very low that day, and in some parts of the inlet there was
no water at all, the sandy bottom showing quite dry in the sun.

As Cousin Tom had said, toward the fall of the year the tides are both
extra high and extra low. Of course not at the same time, you
understand, but twice a day. Sometimes the waters of the ocean came up
into the inlet until they nearly flowed over the small pier. Then, some
hours later, they would be very low. This was one of the low times for
the tide, and it had made several small islands of sand in the middle of
Clam River.

It was toward one of these islands that Margy and Mun Bun were wading.
They had seen it from the shore and it looked to be a good place to
play. There was a big, almost round, spot of white sand, and all about
it was shallow water, sparkling in the sun. The deepest water between
the shore and the island was half way up to Margy's knees, and that, as
I think you will admit, was not deep at all.

"We'll have some fun there," said Mun Bun.

"Maybe we can dig clams," went on the little girl.

Clam River was so called because so many soft and hard clams were dug
there by the fishermen, who sold them to people who liked to make
chowder of them.

There are two kinds of clams that are good