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Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Tom's, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 15. The Box On The Beach |
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_ CHAPTER XV. THE BOX ON THE BEACH "Dear me!" exclaimed the children's mother, as she hurried along beside Violet to help settle whatever trouble Russ had caused. "Oh! did you hear what Rose said?" asked Vi. "Did you hear?" "Yes, my dear, I did." "Oh, my lovely doll is drowned!" cried the little girl, and there were real tears in her eyes, and some even ran down her nose and splashed to the ground. "I just knew Russ would be mean and tease me, and he did, and now my doll is drowned and----" "Well, it might better be a doll that is drowned and not one of my six little Bunkers," said the mother. "Though, of course, _I_ am sorry if any of your playthings are lost. Russ, did you drown Vi's doll?" she called to her oldest son. "I didn't mean to, Mother," was the answer. "I was giving the doll a ride in a boat I made, and the boat got blown by the wind, and the wind upset the boat, and the boat went under water, 'cause I had a cargo of stones on it, and----" "What happened to Vi's doll?" asked Mother Bunker. "Why don't you get to that part of it, Russ?" "I was going to," he said. "The doll fell off when the boat upset and sank, and the doll sank, too, I guess." "Is my doll really, really, drowned?" cried Violet. "I--I'm afraid I guess so," stammered Russ. "But maybe I can fish her up again when the tide is low," he added hopefully. "Do it now," sobbed the little girl. "The water's too deep now." "Where did she get drowned?" asked Violet, gazing through her tears at the waters of the inlet. "The boat upset out there in the middle," said Russ, pointing. "Oh, dear!" sighed Violet. "If she was my rubber doll maybe she wouldn't be drowned. But she's my china doll, and they won't float, will they, Mother?" "No, my dear, I'm afraid not. How did it happen, Russ? Why did you take Violet's doll?" "'Cause I wanted to give her a ride, and I didn't think she would care--I mean Vi. Course the doll didn't care." "She did so!" exclaimed the little girl, stamping her foot on the sand. "My dolls have got feelings, same as you have, Russ Bunker, so there!" "Now children, don't get excited," said Mrs. Bunker gently. "Russ, you shouldn't have taken Vi's doll." "Well, I wanted to see how much my boat would hold, and I was playing the doll was a passenger. I'll get it back for her. Cousin Tom will take me out in his boat to the middle, and I can scoop the doll up with a crab net." Mrs. Bunker went with Russ and Violet to find Cousin Tom, leaving Laddie, Rose, Margy and Mun Bun playing with pebbles and shells in the sand. Russ told Cousin Tom what had happened. The little boy had made a boat out of a piece of board, with a mast and a bit of cloth for a sail. He had loaded his boat with stones he had picked up on the beach of the inlet, and had started his craft off on a voyage. Violet had been playing near by with her doll, and when she put it down for a moment Russ had taken the doll and put it on his toy boat. Then he gave it a shove out into the Clam River, the wind blowing on the sail and sending his toy well out toward the middle of the inlet. There the accident happened. The boat turned over and sank. Perhaps if Russ had only laid the stones on, instead of tying one or two large ones fast, as he had, the boat might have floated, even though upset. For if the stones had not been tied on they would have rolled off and the boat would have righted herself and floated, being made of wood. But, as it was, she sank. "And my doll went down with it," said Vi sadly. "Please, Cousin Tom, can you get her back?" "I don't know, Violet. I'll see," was the answer. "The tide is running out now, for it was high water a little while ago. If the boat sank down to the bottom, and stayed there, we may be able to get it when the water is low if we can see it." "The sail is white, and you can see white cloth even under water," said Russ. "But I'm afraid the cloth won't stay white very long. The mud and sand of the inlet will cover it," remarked Cousin Tom. "Did you tie the doll on the boat, too, Russ?" "No, I just laid the doll down on top of the stones." "Then when the boat upset the doll rolled off, and she probably sank in another place," said Mr. Bunker. "I don't believe we can ever find her, Vi, I'm sorry to say, but I'll try at low tide." "Would she be carried out to sea, like Mun Bun and Margy 'most was?" the little girl wanted to know. "She might, if the tide current was strong enough," said Cousin Tom. "What kind of doll was she?" "China," answered Vi. "She was hollow, 'cause she made a hollow sound when you tapped her. And she had a hole in her back, and sometimes I used to pour milk in there, and make believe feed her." "Well, if your doll was hollow, and had a hole in her back, she probably filled with water when she sank," said Cousin Tom. "Oh, dear!" sighed Violet. That evening, when the tide was low, so there was not so much water in the inlet, Cousin Tom and Daddy Bunker, taking Russ with them to show where his boat had upset, rowed out to the middle of Clam River. It took them a little while to find the place where Russ had last seen his toy boat, but finally they found it. Then, looking down into the water, they peered about for a sight of the white sail. "There it is!" suddenly cried Russ, as he leaned over the side of the boat. "I see something white." "Yes, I see it, too," said Daddy Bunker. "Perhaps that is the sail of the sunken toy boat, and perhaps the doll is near here." But when Cousin Tom put down the long-handled crab net and scooped up the white object, it was found to be a bit of paper. "Oh, dear!" sighed Russ. "I wish it was Vi's doll!" He felt bad about the sorrow he had caused his little sister. "We'll try again," said his father, and, after rowing about a bit and peering down into the water, they saw something else white, and this time it really was Russ's boat. Cousin Tom scooped it up in his crab net, and when the stones which were tied on deck, were loosed, the boat floated as well as ever, and the wind and sun soon dried the wet sail. But, though they scooped with crab nets all about the place where they had found the boat, they could not bring up Vi's doll. "Oh, didn't you find her?" asked the little girl, when her father, Cousin Tom, and Russ came back in the rowboat. "No, dear, we couldn't find her," said Daddy Bunker. "Oh, dear!" and Vi cried very hard. "Never mind, I'll get you another doll," said her mother. "They won't ever a doll be as nice as she was," sobbed Vi. "I--I just lo-lo-loved her!" They all felt sorry for Violet, and Russ said she could have his new knife, if she wanted it. But she said she didn't; all she wanted was her doll. "Never mind," said Rose, trying to comfort her sister. "Maybe when I find my gold locket, if I ever do, you'll find your lost doll. We've got two things to hunt for now--your doll and my locket." "But your locket is lost on land, and, maybe, if you dig in the sand enough, you can find it," sobbed Violet. "But you can't dig in the water!" "Maybe she'll be washed up on the beach with the tide, same as the driftwood and the shells and the seaweed are washed up," put in Russ. "I'll look along the beach every day, Vi, and maybe I'll find your doll for you." This comforted Vi some, and she dried her tears. Then Laddie made them all laugh by saying: "I have a new riddle!" "Is it about a doll?" asked Rose. "No. It's about a cow." "How can you make a riddle about a cow?" Russ demanded. "Well, I didn't make this one up," said Laddie; "and it isn't like the riddles I like to ask, 'cause there isn't any answer to it." "There must be some answer," declared Violet. "All riddles have answers." "Well, I'll tell you this one, and you can see if it has," went on Laddie. "Now listen, everybody." Then he slowly said: "How is it that a red cow can eat green grass and give white milk that makes yellow butter?" No one answered for a moment, and then Daddy Bunker laughed. "That is pretty good," he said, "and I don't believe there is any answer to it. Of course we all know a red cow, or one that is a sort of brownish red, does eat green grass. And the milk a cow gives is white and the butter made from the white milk is yellow. Of course that isn't exactly a riddle, but it's pretty good, Laddie." "And is there an answer to it?" the little boy asked. "I don't believe there is," answered his father. "It's just one of those things that happen. Did you make that up, Laddie?" "No. Cousin Tom told it to me out of a book. But I like it." Vi still sorrowed for her doll, and, in the days that followed, she often walked along the beach hoping "Sarah Janet," as she called her, might be cast up by the tide or the waves. Russ looked also, as did the others, but no doll was found. Nor did Rose find her gold locket, though many holes were dug in the sand searching for it. One morning, after breakfast, when he had gone down on the beach to watch the fishing boats come in, which he often did, Russ came running back to the house, very much excited. "What's the matter?" asked his mother. "Did one of the boats upset and spill out the fishermen?" "No'm, Mother. But a box washed up on shore, and it's nailed shut, and it's heavy, and maybe Vi's doll is in it! Oh, please come down and see the box on the beach!" _ |
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