aper, these people had buckets,
oysters, knives. As fast as they could, they were opening the
big, horny oyster shells and emptying the oysters into the
buckets.

Next time, Dick stayed with Sally, and Rose-Ellen and Jimmie
peeked. They were startled when a big hand dropped on each of
their heads.

"You kids skedaddle," ordered a big man. "If you want to see
things, come back at four."

By four o'clock the grown folks were home, tired and smelling of
fish; Dick and Rose-Ellen were prancing on tiptoe to go, and
even Jimmie was ready.

"This is what he is like," said Rose-Ellen, "the man who said
we could." She stuck in her chin and threw out her chest and
tried to stride.

"That's the Big Boss, all right," Daddy said, laughing. "Guess
it's O.K. But mind your _p_'s and _q_'s."

"And stick together. Specially in a strange place." Grandma
wearily picked up the baby.

The Big Boss saw them as soon as they tiptoed into the
oyster-house. "Ez," he called, "here's some nice kids. Show 'em
around, will you?"

Ez was opening clams with a penknife, and spilling them into his
mouth. "Want some?" he asked.

The children shook their heads vigorously.

He closed his knife and dropped it into his pocket.

"Well, now first you want to see the dredges come in from the
bay." He took them through the open front of the shed to the
docks outside. The boats had gone out at three o'clock in the
morning, he said, in the deep dark. They were coming in now
heavily, loaded high with horny oysters, and Ez pointed out the
rake-set iron nets with which the shellfish were dragged from
their beds. "Got 'em out of bed good and early!"

"I'd hate to have to eat 'em all," Jimmie said suddenly in his
husky little voice.

Everyone laughed, for the big rough shells were traveling into
the oyster-house by thousands, on moving belts. Some shells
looked as if they were carrying sponges in their mouths, but Ez
said it was a kind of moss that grew there. Already the pile of
unopened oysters in the shed was higher than a man. The shuckers
needed a million to work on next day, Ez said.

[Illustration: Watching the dredges]

When the children had watched awhile, and the boatmen had asked
their names, and how old they were and where they came from, Ez
took them inside the shed to show them the handling of the newly
shucked oysters. First the oysters were dumped into something
that looked like Mrs. Albi's electric washer, and washed