that great,
mysterious tyrant--the ocean.

"Isn't this grand!"

"Just smell the salt air!"

"Makes you feel braced up already," came from Billie, who had been
filling her lungs to the utmost. "Oh, girls! I'm just crazy to jump in
and have a swim."

"I'm with you on that," broke out Vi. "Oh, I'm sure we're going to have
just the best times ever!"

There was a fair-sized crowd to get aboard, made up partly of natives and
partly of city folks. The passengers were followed by a number of trunks
and a small amount of freight.

"Evidently we're not the only ones to take this trip," remarked Billie,
as she noted the people coming on board the _Mary Ann_.

"A number of these people must live on the islands the year around," said
Laura.

"My, how lonely it must be on this coast during the winter months," said
Billie. "Think of being out on one of those islands in a howling
snowstorm!"

"I wonder how they get anything to eat during those times?" questioned
Vi.

"I presume they keep stuff on hand," answered Billie.

With a sharp toot of her whistle the boat moved out from the dock, made
her way carefully among the numerous other craft in the harbor, and
finally nosed her way out into the water of the channel.

"O--oh," breathed Vi, softly. "It's even more wonderful than I thought it
would be. I'd like to go sailing on and on like this forever."

"Well, I wouldn't," said Laura practically. "Not without any supper. I'm
getting a perfectly awful appetite."

"It will be worse than that after you've been here a little while,"
laughed Connie. "Mother says that it seems as if she never can give me
enough to eat when we come out to the seashore, so she has given up
trying."

"Your poor mother!" said Billie dolefully. "And now she has four of us!"

"I know," chuckled Connie. "Mother was worrying a little about that--as
to how she could keep four famished wolves fed at one time. But Uncle Tom
said he'd help her out."

"Your Uncle Tom," Vi repeated wonderingly. "Can he cook?"

"Of course," said Connie, looking at her as if she had asked if the world
was square. "Didn't I tell you about his clam chowder?"

"Oh," said Vi thoughtfully, while something within her began to cry out
for a sample of that clam chowder. "Oh yes, I remember."

"Connie, you're cruel," moaned Laura. "Can't you talk of something
besides clam chowder when you know I'm starving to death? Goodness, I can
almost smell it."

"That's the clams you s