Zaidee, always more daring than her delicate little twin, did not think
so.

"'Course we'll be careful not to bunk right into him," she conceded.
"We'll dig very slowly when we get pretty near there. Come on, Helen.
Want to come, Billy?"

"Sho, now!" said Billy, looking very unhappy over this unexpected result
of his little moral tale. Once, long ago, a mischievous boy-visitor had
taken and eaten all Billy's peppermints, and he never forgot it. He
always took occasion to tell it as a story to every little newcomer, to
ensure the safety of his valued peppermints, but no one had ever thus
applied the story before.

"Seems as if I wouldn't try, children," he repeated, anxiously. "You
might tumble in."

But when Zaidee's mind was once set on an enterprise, nothing could turn
her. She ran away for the shovels and dragged reluctant Helen with her.
They selected a nice hollow place in the sand, and began to dig
furiously. In a few minutes they had a hole a foot deep. Zaidee balanced
herself on the edge, on her knees, and put her hands down on the bottom
of the hole.

"I do think it's getting hotter, Helen, just feel."

Helen put her hand down, rather fearfully.

"It's getting _very_ hot, Zaidee, and don't let's dig any more."

"Don't be a 'fraid cat," responded Zaidee, promptly. "It's only a little
bit hot. We must dig until it's ever so much hotter yet," and Zaidee
went on throwing up the sand, energetically.

"Oh, dear! how it all slides down the sides. I'll have to get in it and
dig," she said, presently.

"Don't! don't!" cried Helen, in great terror, clutching Zaidee with
both hands. "Don't go down there. You might tumble right through any
time right on Mr. Satam's head!"

But Zaidee, unheeding, jumped into the hole, and went on digging,
sturdily, while Helen, frightened and apprehensive, watched her from
above. Suddenly she shrieked in new terror:

"Oh, Zaidee! come out! please come out! I see the feathers on his cap
sticking right up there! oh, you'll hit him in a minute, and he'll jump
up!" for "Mr. Satam," and Indian chiefs, with waving plumes, and
tomahawks, formed a very confused picture in her mind.

Zaidee scrambled up in a flash.

"Where? Where?" she cried, peering down when safe above. Truly, at the
bottom of the hole was seen the top of a feather dropped from a
sea-gull's wing, and buried under the drifting sand, but the startled
children never doubted that it was growing fast on the top of "