Part 22 (1/2)

An hour later the millionaire was walking the beach looking for the life-savers. He finally spied Hal.

”Here, there, you boy,” he called, and Hal came in to the edge, but hardly recognized the man in street clothes.

”I want your name,” demanded the stranger. ”Do you know there are medals given to young heroes like you?”

”Oh, that was nothing,” stammered Hal, quite confused now.

”Nothing! Why, I was about dead, and pulled on you with all my two hundred pounds. You knew, too, you had hardly a chance to bring me up. Yes, indeed, I want your name,” and as he insisted, Hal reluctantly gave it, but felt quite foolish to make such a fuss ”over nothing,” as he said.

It was now about time for the excursion train to come in, so the boys left the water and prepared to meet their old friends.

”I hope Jack Hopkins comes,” said Bert, for Jack was a great friend.

”Oh, he will be along,” Harry remarked. ”n.o.body likes a good time better than Jack.”

”Here they come!” announced Hal, the next minute, as a crowd of children with many lunch boxes came running down to the ocean.

”h.e.l.lo there! h.e.l.lo there!” called everybody at once, for, of course, all the children knew Harry and many also knew Bert.

There were Tom Mason, Jack Hopkins, August Stout, and Ned Prentice in the first crowd, while a number of girls, friends of Nan's, were in another group. Nan, Nellie, and Dorothy had been detained by somebody further up on the road, but were now coming down, slowly.

Such a delight as the ocean was to the country children!

As each roller slipped out on the sands the children unconsciously followed it, and so, many unsuspected pairs of shoes were caught by the next wave that washed in.

”Well, here comes Uncle Daniel!” called Bert, as, sure enough, down to the edge came Uncle Daniel with Dorothy holding on one arm, Nan clinging to the other, while Nellie carried his small satchel.

Santa Claus could hardly have been more welcome to the Bobbseys at that moment than was Uncle Daniel. They simply overpowered him, as the surprise of his coming made the treat so much better. The girls had ”dragged him” down to the ocean, he said, when he had intended first going to Aunt Emily's.

”I must see the others,” he insisted; ”Freddie and Flossie.”

”Oh, they are all coming down,” Nan a.s.sured him. ”Aunt Sarah, too, is coming.”

”All right, then,” agreed Uncle Daniel. ”I'll wait awhile. Well, Harry, you look like an Indian. Can you see through that coat of tan?”

Harry laughed and said he had been an Indian in having a good time.

Presently somebody jumped up on Uncle Daniel's back. As he was sitting on the sands the shock almost brought him down. Of course it was Freddie, who was so overjoyed he really treated the good-natured uncle a little roughly.

”Freddie boy! Freddie boy!” exclaimed Uncle Daniel, giving his nephew a good long hug. ”And you have turned Indian, too! Where's that sea-serpent you were going to catch for me?”

”I'll get him yet,” declared the little fellow. ”It hasn't rained hardly since we came down, and they only come in to land out of the rain.”

This explanation made Uncle Daniel laugh heartily. The whole family sat around on the sands, and it was like being in the country and at the seash.o.r.e at the one time, Flossie declared.

The boys, of course, were in the water. August Stout had not learned much about swimming since he fell off the plank while fis.h.i.+ng in Meadow Brook, so that out in the waves the other boys had great fun with their fat friend.

”And there is Nettie Prentice!” exclaimed Nan, suddenly, as she espied her little country friend looking through the crowd, evidently searching for friends.

”Oh, Nan!” called Nettie, in delight, ”I'm just as glad to see you as I am to see the ocean, and I never saw that before,” and the two little girls exchanged greetings of genuine love for each other.