han that they had had the night before,
because it was freshly made--and it was after three o'clock before they
finally tore themselves from the lighthouse and Uncle Tom and started for
the Danvers' bungalow.

"Come again and come often," he called after them in his megaphone voice,
one hand stroking Bruce's beautiful head as the big dog stood beside him.

"We will," they answered happily.

"Especially if you give us clam chowder every time," Billie laughed back
at him over her shoulder. "Good-bye, Bruce." She turned once more before
they lost sight of the lighthouse keeper, and there he was, towering in
the doorway, his dog at his side, smoking his corn cob pipe and gazing
thoughtfully out to sea.

"I don't wonder you love him, Connie," she said, shading her eyes with
her hand, for the brilliant sunshine made her blink. "I think he's
wonderful. He's like--like--somebody out of a book."

"Poor Teddy," said Laura, with a wicked side glance at her chum. "I guess
he'd better hurry up, if he's coming."

Billie tried hard to think of something crushing to say in reply, but
before she could speak Connie gave an excited little skip that very
nearly landed her in the sand a couple of feet below the boardwalk.

"Oh, when do you suppose the boys will get here?" she asked eagerly. "I'm
just crazy to go out in that motor boat of Paul's."

"Yes, to have the boys come will be all we need to make us perfectly
happy," declared Vi.

"Well, they ought to be along in a few days now," said Billie. Then she
suddenly caught Connie's arm and pointed out toward the water's edge.

"Look!" she cried. "There are some people in swimming."

"Why, of course," said Connie. "We can go in swimming, too, to-morrow if
we want to. Maybe Uncle Tom will come along. I always feel safer with
him, he's such a wonderful swimmer."

"Oh, I hope so," said Vi, adding plaintively: "I only wish to-morrow
wasn't such a long way off," and she sighed.

The girls walked along in silence for a few minutes. Then Billie spoke as
if she were thinking aloud.

"I wonder," she said, "what your Uncle Tom----"

"You'd better call him your Uncle Tom," said Connie, with a laugh,
"because he's already adopted you."

"All right," agreed Billie. "I wonder what made Uncle Tom speak the way
he did about storms and wrecks and--and--things----"

"Why, since he's a sailor," said Laura, "I suppose he's been in all sorts
of wrecks, and of course he thinks about them most