d as he danced on
one foot Bunny held the other up in the air, and he was crying something
which his mother could not hear.

"Sue," asked Mrs. Brown, as she hurried down the slope leading to the
beach proper, "did Bunny step on a broken bottle and cut his toe?"

"No, Mother, it isn't that," answered the little girl. "I don't know
just what it is. I was making a little house on the sand, and Bunny was
wading in the water. All of a sudden he yelled, and told me to go and
get you 'cause there was something the matter with his toe."

"He probably cut himself," said Mrs. Brown, and she began to search in
her pocket for an extra handkerchief. It would not be the first time
Bunny or Sue had suffered a cut foot because of stepping on a sharp
shell or a piece of glass while in wading.

But when Mrs. Brown and Sue reached the edge of the little pool in which
Bunny was hopping about on one foot, holding himself up by leaning on a
piece of driftwood he had picked up and was using as a crutch, his
mother saw what the matter was.

"Take it off my toe! Take it off my toe!" cried Bunny.

"It's a big, pinching crab," said Mrs. Brown. "Oh, Bunny, I'm so sorry!
Come out of the water and I'll make it let go of you. Come out!"

By this time Sue, also, had seen the cause of the trouble. A big crab
had been caught when the tide went down, and was in the pool of water,
which, surrounded by sand, was like a little lake. Bunny must have
stepped on the creature when wading. It had nipped the big toe of his
left foot, and was holding on, though Bunny had raised his foot out of
the water as far as he could.

"Come here, Bunny. I'll get him off for you," his mother called.

"I can't come! How am I going to walk on one foot?" and Bunny howled,
for the crab was pinching hard.

"Can't you skip, as we do when we play hopscotch?" asked Sue.

"Maybe," her brother answered.

He was about to try it, and his mother was just going to tell him that a
better way would be to dip his foot back in the water when the crab
might swim away, when the pinching creature decided to let go anyhow. It
loosened its claws and dropped with a splash into the puddle of water.

"Oh, he's gone! He let go my toe!" cried Bunny, and then he ran up the
sandy shore as fast as he could go.

"Let me see where he pinched you," said Mrs. Brown, when Bunny had
reached her side. "Is it bleeding?"

"Yes, I guess it is! And maybe he pinched my whole toe off," said Bunny,
alm