re.
"You walk along the beach until you meet me. Then we can see what's in
it."

This was done, and soon Uncle Tad and Mrs. Brown were down on the little
pier of Christmas Tree Cove, looking at the box and wondering what could
be in it.

"It's heavy, whatever it is," said Uncle Tad.

"Pirate gold is always heavy, I guess," said Bunny.

"Oh, it couldn't be gold!" declared Bunker Blue. "If it was gold in the
box I never could have lifted it."

"Let's open it!" suggested Sue.

"No, we must not do that," said Mrs. Brown. "When your father comes home
to-night I'll have him write to this Mr. Frank Ravenwood of Sea Gate. In
the letter daddy can explain how the box was found, and Mr. Ravenwood
can come here and get it if he wishes to. Until then, Bunker, you had
better take it up to the woodshed, where it will be safe from harm."

Uncle Tad and Bunker put the box on a wheelbarrow, and it was soon
stored in the woodshed back of the bungalow. For some time Bunny, Sue
and Harry wondered what could be in it, but, after a while, the children
ran off to play in the sand, and to wade and paddle in the water.

"Let's build a big sand fort," suggested Bunny.

"Oh, no, make it a doll house," cried Sue.

"All right, a doll house," said Harry, who was beginning to like Sue as
much as he did Bunny.

So they built a wonderful doll house of sand, with four rooms and an
elegant driveway. But just as it was completed the whole thing caved in.

"My! ain't I glad none of my dolls were in that," declared Sue.

Mr. Brown came up to his summer home that night, and, after looking at
the box, wrote a letter to Mr. Ravenwood, telling how it had been found.
This letter was mailed to Sea Gate, and then followed a time of waiting.
In the letter Mr. Brown had told how Bunny, Sue, and Harry Slater had
found the box.

"I wonder when we'll get an answer," remarked Bunny several times in
the next two days.

"If the box is at all valuable Mr. Ravenwood ought to answer daddy's
letter very soon," said Mrs. Brown. "I don't see how the box got into
the bay and floated all the way up here from Sea Gate. It is quite a
distance."

Three days after the strange find, when Bunny, Sue, and Harry were
playing with Rose and Jimmie Madden near the bungalow one afternoon,
Uncle Tad came up from the village with the mail.

"Here's a letter from Mr. Ravenwood, children!" said the old soldier.

"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Sue.

"Did he say his box had pirate