Part 29 (1/2)

”What is it, Sue?” she asked the little girl, for Sue kept on pointing toward something behind Mrs. Slater.

”The tide!” exclaimed Bunny's sister. ”The tide's coming up and it's was.h.i.+ng over the sand and we're on an island! We can't get back lessen we wade!”

Mrs. Slater gave a startled cry, and looked toward where Sue pointed.

Surely enough, while they had been watching the box and while Bunny and Harry had been getting it to sh.o.r.e the tide had risen and now covered part of the strip of sand on which they had all walked out. As Sue said, it was an island, and the only way to get to sh.o.r.e was to wade.

”I'm going to take off my shoes and stockings!” cried the little girl, hopping up on the box and beginning to loosen her laces. ”You'd better take off your shoes, too, Mrs. Slater. If you don't you'll get your feet wet when you have to wade to sh.o.r.e. Course you haven't got your mother here to scold you if you get your shoes wet, but maybe your husband mightn't like it,” went on Sue. ”You can wade same as I can.”

”We don't have to take off our shoes and stockings, 'cause we have 'em off already,” said Bunny. ”Harry and I can wade.”

”It looks as if I'd have to do that,” said Harry's mother. ”I wonder if the water is very deep,” she went on, as she looked at the water which had covered the sh.o.r.e end of the little tongue of land.

”No, it isn't deep!” declared Bunny, and he waded out into it. ”But it keeps on getting deeper when the tide comes up. You'd better take your shoes and stockings off now, Mrs. Slater, else maybe it'll be away up over your head soon.”

”I shouldn't want that to happen,” she said, with a laugh. ”I believe I shall have to do as you children have done, and go barefoot,” and she glanced at Sue, who, by this time, had off her shoes and stockings.

Harry's mother looked at the stretch of water separating the little party from the mainland. As Bunny had said, it would get deeper the higher the tide rose, though, of course, it would not go over Mrs.

Slater's head. She sat down on the box, as Sue had done, and was just beginning to take off her shoes when a voice called to them.

”Wait a minute! I'm coming to get you!” was what they all heard, and, looking up, Bunny Brown saw Bunker Blue rowing along in his sailboat.

The sail, however, was not up now.

”Oh, Bunker, come and get us!” cried Sue. ”We're caught by the tide, and----”

”And we found a box and maybe it has pirate gold in it!” sang out Bunny.

”Look, Bunker!” and the little boy pointed to the box on the sand. It was still partly in the water.

”I see,” answered Bunker Blue. ”I noticed that you'd been caught by the tide, so I came in the boat to get you. Wait there, Mrs. Slater,” he went on. ”There's no need of getting your feet wet.”

In a little while Bunker rowed up to the place where the box rested and where Bunny, Sue, and the others stood around it, the three children barefooted. The little tongue, or peninsula, of land, was now an island, rapidly growing smaller in size as the tide rose.

”Get in the boat and I'll row you to sh.o.r.e,” said Bunker, as he grounded his craft in the sand.

”Have we got to leave the box here?” asked Bunny.

”No, I'll come back and get that after I land you,” said the fish boy.

So they all got into the boat, and it did not take Bunker Blue long to row them to sh.o.r.e. Then he went back, and, after a little hard work, he managed to get the box into his boat.

”I'll row this box down to the dock,” called Bunker to those on sh.o.r.e.

”You walk along the beach until you meet me. Then we can see what's in it.”

This was done, and soon Uncle Tad and Mrs. Brown were down on the little pier of Christmas Tree Cove, looking at the box and wondering what could be in it.

”It's heavy, whatever it is,” said Uncle Tad.