some
task. Even Margery obeyed her orders cheerfully, for the rule was
there, and, even though Dolly had twisted it a bit, it was recognized as
a good joke. Moreover, everyone was hungry and wanted the meal to be
ready as soon as possible.

"There's good water at the top of that path," said Eleanor, pointing to
a path that led up a bluff that backed against the tents. "I think maybe
we'll build a wooden pipe-line to bring the water right down here, but
for to-day we'll have to carry it from the spring there."

"Is there driftwood here for a camp fire, do you suppose, the way there
was last year, Miss Eleanor?" asked one of the other girls. "I'll never
forget the lovely fires we had then!"

"There's lots of it, I'm afraid," said Eleanor, gravely.

"Why are you 'afraid'?" asked Bessie, wonderingly.

"Because all the driftwood, or most of it, comes from wrecked ships,
Bessie. This beach looks calm and peaceful now, but in the winter, when
the great northeast storms blow, this is a terrible coast, and lots and
lots of ships are wrecked. Men are drowned very often, too."

"Oh, I never thought of that!"

"Still, some of the wood is just lost from lumber schooners that are
loaded too heavily," said Eleanor. "And it certainly does make a
beautiful fire, all red and green and blue, and oh, all sorts of colors
and shades you never even dreamed of! We'll have a ceremonial camp fire
while we're here, and it is certainly true that there is no fire half so
beautiful as that we get when we use the wood that the sea casts up."

"Don't they often find lots of other things beside wood along the coast
after a great storm, Miss Eleanor!"

"Yes, indeed! There are people who make their living that way.
Wreckers, they call them, you know. Of course, it isn't as common to
find really valuable things now as it was in the old days."

"Why not? I thought more things were carried at sea than ever," said
Dolly.

"There aren't so many wrecks, Dolly, for one thing. And then, in the old
days, before steam, and the great big ships they have now, even the most
valuable cargoes were carried in wooden ships that were at the mercy of
these great storms."

"Oh, and now they send those things in the big ships that are safer, I
suppose?"

"Yes. You very seldom hear of an Atlantic liner being wrecked, you know.
It does happen once in a great while, of course, but they are much more
likely to reach the port they sail for than the old wooden ship