ut a stop to the dancing; and here let me tell you, that
surf bathing is always a pretty venturesome thing to attempt, unless you
grasp the ropes firmly, or have hold of some older and stronger person's
hand.

There was one gentleman flourishing about near us, who seemed bent upon
trying how many odd things he could do in the water. Presently we saw
him going down head first, and then his feet coming up in the air like a
duck's! It looked so comical to see any one besides a duck standing
upside down in the water, that we all burst out laughing, and just then
along came another billow, and treated us each to a mouthful of salt
water!

By this time we had been in long enough for one day, for you should
always remember to come out before you feel chilled, and so we waded to
the shore, looking more outlandish than ever, now the bathing dresses
were all soaked, and hurried into the houses to get dry and dressed.

Surf bathing is a famous thing to give you an appetite; and I don't
wonder Mr. Laird provides so bountiful and well cooked a dinner, when I
think of the famishing five hundred people that were to be fed the day I
was there, and every day beside. The "Charge of the Light Brigade" was
nothing to the charge we made upon the dishes; and as the dining room is
sensibly arranged with tables accommodating about a dozen people each,
we all sat together; and had such a merry time that two or three cross
old dames looked sharply at our party, very curious to know what all the
laughing was about. Our small friend Gipsey was the cause of it, partly,
for he posted himself beside each of our chairs in turn, and made such
surprising and despairing hops and skips after bits of chicken held up
beyond his reach, that he very nearly turned a somerset each time.

We rewarded his patience at last by giving him some bones, which he
crunched under the table with perfect satisfaction, while we were
discussing the ice cream and other good things.

In the afternoon I was sitting reading the paper on the upper piazza,
and the children were amusing themselves in their own fashion near me.
Nelly, with another little girl, whose name seemed to be "Baby," for
they never called her anything else, were manufacturing a resplendent
doll's dress for a waxen angel in a white spencer--or whatever those
muslin concerns are called, which the ladies wear with colored skirts
nowadays, and a black velvet pointed belt; while the boys, with their
arms frat