he combers gathered to
commence operations, one of the happiest faces there was that of little
"Limpy," hopping briskly along on his crutches, and nodding gay
greetings to his old comrades. They found the beach evenly measured off
and divided by stakes. The plan of the lads of Benton was to draw lots
for their respective portions, a strict though unwritten law being that
no one should poach upon another's grounds.

"See, Kit, you and I are neighbors," said Jem, cordially, to young
Bundy. "And such fine sections as we have! right in front of the great
Naiad Hotel. We have a good chance for the diamond. Oh, but don't I wish
I could find it!"

But Kit only growled something about "luck-bird-killers" under his
breath, and strode away to his own preserve. Always rather a leader
among his companions, he was chagrined by his defeat, and felt injured
and annoyed by the cripple's presence.

As the day wore on, however, he found it difficult to keep up his
antagonism to cheery Jem, who ignored all rebuffs, and chatted away in
the most friendly as well as quaint manner--now about the sea, wondering
why it changed its hue from blue to green and green to gray; and now
about the fish-hawks circling overhead, and longing to be one of them,
that he too might fly off to some warm Southern land before the cold,
biting winter came on.

"What a queer un you are!" remarked Kit at length. "What makes you
think of such things? Why, I'd a heap rather be a boy than a bird."

"Yes, 'cause you are so big and strong. You can make your way in the
world, and your back isn't crooked, and your legs all drawed up. Now I,
you see, am neither flesh nor fowl nor good red herring," and Jem
cackled a feeble little laugh, but without a tinge of bitterness. How,
too, he enjoyed the lunch eaten on the beach, and insisted that every
one must taste the pie Eileen had made for him out of "two pertaties and
a bit of a lemon."

For three days the weather was perfect, and the combers "made hay while
the sun shone," gathering quite a profitable collection of old iron and
nails, children's toys, small coins, and inexpensive pins and pieces of
jewelry, while Bert Woolley had the good fortune to come upon a silver
watch little the worse for its sojourn in the damp sand.

But on the fourth morning there came a change. Heavy clouds obscured old
Sol from view, the sea roared with a low ominous undertone, and the wind
blew raw and chill from the northeast, making th