to stay up a half hour longer than the
others.

While Daddy Bunker and Cousin Tom and the two Mrs. Bunkers were talking
on the side porch, and watching the moon rise, as though it came right
from the ocean, Russ and Rose sat down on the beach. They were within
call from the bungalow, though about a block away from it, Cousin Tom's
place being the first one up from the water.

Russ picked up a shell, and started to dig.

"What are you looking for?" asked Rose.

"I was just wondering if there was any gold here," said her brother.
"Sammie Brown said there was gold in sand, and there's lots of sand
here; isn't there, Rose?"

"Yes, but Laddie and Violet dug in a lot of places to-day, and so did
Margy and Mun Bun, and they didn't find any gold."

"They didn't know how to look for it," declared Russ. "You have to dig
deep for gold."

"I'll help," offered Rose. "I like to dig in the sand."

She found a clam shell, as large as the one Russ had, and with those for
shovels, the children began digging on the beach in the moonlight. They
could look back and see the bungalow, and Mr. and Mrs. Bunker could see
the children from where they sat.

The ocean surf made a loud noise.

"Doesn't it sound nice and scary-like?" asked Rose, as she reached her
arm down into the hole she was digging, and scooped up some damp sand.

"Yes. It's like the desert island Sammie told about," agreed Russ,
listening to the boom and hiss of the waves as they broke on the beach.
"Have you found any gold yet, Rose?"

"No. Have you?"

Russ shook his head.

"I guess we've got to go deeper," he said.

It grew later. The moon rose higher, and it became a little more
"scary-like." Presently Mrs. Bunker called:

"Come, Rose! Russ! Time to go to bed!"

"All right!" they answered. They were tired enough to want to go to
sleep.

They dropped their clam shells near the holes they had dug, and started
up the beach. Suddenly Rose gave a cry.

"What's the matter?" asked Russ.

"My locket! My gold locket that Grandma gave me! It's gone! Oh, I have
lost my lovely gold locket!"

CHAPTER IX

THE SAND HOUSE

"What's the matter?" called Mr. Bunker from the bungalow porch. He had
heard the sobbing voice of Rose. "Has anything happened?" he went on.
"Tell Daddy what it is."

"I have lost my lovely gold locket!" sobbed Rose. "The one Grandma gave
me! I dropped it in the sand, I guess, when I was digging the holes for
gold. I wish I hadn't