picked-out meat, and
the children--all except Mun Bun and Margy, who were too little to be
allowed to eat any--said the crabs were better than fish. Daddy and
Mother Bunker liked them, too.

"Some of the crabs have awful big claws," remarked Russ after dinner,
as he looked at a pile of the legs and claws. "I guess they could dig in
the sand with 'em, the crabs could. They could dig deep holes."

"I wish one would dig down and find my lost locket," said Rose with a
sorrowful sigh.

For, though they had all searched the sand near the bungalow beach over
and over, there was no sign of the missing gold locket.

"I guess we'll never find it," Rose went on with another sigh. "Not even
if a crab could dig down deep."

"Well, I'll dig some more," promised Laddie. "Vi and I are going to make
some holes in the sand to play a new game, and maybe we'll find your
locket that way."

But they did not, and Rose, though she herself searched and dug in many
places, could not find the ornament.

There were many happy August days for the six little Bunkers at Cousin
Tom's. They played in the sand, went crabbing and fishing, wading and
swimming.

One hot afternoon, when it was too warm to do more than sit in the
shade, Mrs. Bunker, who had been lying on the porch in a hammock
reading, laid aside her book and looked up.

"Where has Mun Bun gone?" she asked Rose, who was playing jackstones
near by. "And did Margy go with him?"

"I don't know, Mother," Rose answered. "They were here a minute ago.
I'll go and look for them."

Just as Rose got up and as Mrs. Bunker arose from the hammock, a voice
down near the shore of the inlet called:

"Come back. Get out of that boat! Mother, Margy and Mun Bun are in the
boat, and it's loose, and they're riding down the inlet and the tide's
going out! Oh, Mother, hurry!"

CHAPTER XIV

VIOLET'S DOLL

You can easily believe that Mrs. Bunker did hurry on hearing what Russ
was calling about Mun Bun and Margy. She almost fell out of the hammock,
did Mrs. Bunker, she was in such haste.

"Daddy! Daddy! Come quick!" she called to her husband, who was in the
bungalow, talking to Cousin Tom. "Margy and Mun Bun are in a boat on the
inlet and are being carried out to sea. Hurry!"

Daddy Bunker also hurried.

Mother Bunker was the first to get down to the shore, where she could
see what had happened.

At first all she noticed was Russ jumping up and down in his excitement,
and, at the s