Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove Part 24

She had just time to take a tighter hold of Bunny and turn, but the new boy did not seem to know much about bathing or waves. He stood waiting, and, an instant later he was knocked down and his head went under water.

CHAPTER XVIII

HELD FAST

The first that Mrs. Brown knew of what was happening was when a woman near her screamed. Then this woman hurried down the sands to the edge of the water in which Bunny, Sue, and a number of other children were bathing.

Mrs. Brown had been talking to several women of the summer bungalow colony near Bark Lodge, and one of these ladies had just remarked that a new family had come to the hotel.

"It is Mr. and Mrs. Jonas Slater," Mrs. Brown was told. "They have a little boy named Harry, about as old as your Bunny."

And just as Mrs. Blaney, who was telling this to Mrs. Brown, finished, Mrs. Brown heard a woman scream and saw her run down to the water.

"That's Mrs. Slater now," said Mrs. Blaney. "I wonder what the matter is."

"Her little boy was just knocked down by a big wave," said another woman who had been sitting on the sand talking to Mrs. Brown. "Perhaps we had better go and help her."

It was Harry Slater, the new boy to whom Bunny had been talking, who had been knocked down and rolled over by the big wave. His mother, sitting on the beach, had seen what had taken place. Then she had screamed and had hurried down the sands.

But, as it happened, Bunny Brown was nearer at hand to give the needed help. He and Sue were used to the big waves, which came in Christmas Tree Cove only when one of the large excursion steamers stopped at a nearby dock. The propeller of the steamer sent the waves rushing insh.o.r.e almost like the surf of the larger ocean outside.

"Oh, the wave knocked him down!" cried Sue, who had seen the ma.s.s of water coming, and had held to Bunny while they turned a little and jumped so they did not fall. "Look, Bunny, he's down in the water!"

"I know!" exclaimed Bunny! "I see him! I'll get him up!"

Bunny and Sue had lived so long in Bellemere near the water that, young as they were, they knew the thing to do when people fall into or down in the water is to get them out as soon as possible, in order that they may not be smothered.

So, as soon as he had made sure that Sue was all right, Bunny leaned down, and, catching hold of Harry Slater, the new boy, who was floundering around under water, lifted him up. It was easy for Bunny to do this, as a body in water weighs less than outside.

Thus Bunny easily lifted Harry up and held him on his feet, while the new boy choked and gasped to get his breath. By this time his mother was at the edge of the water, where the waves broke on the sand, and she was just going to go in, all dressed as she was, for she did not wear a bathing suit.

"Harry," cried Mrs. Slater, "mother is coming!"

"There isn't any need, lady!" said Duncan Porter, the life-saver who was always on duty during the bathing hour. "I'll bring him in to you. But, anyhow, Bunny has him safe."

The guard, who had been on another part of the beach, had run up when he heard Mrs. Slater scream, and now he waded out and brought Harry to sh.o.r.e in his arms. The new boy was more frightened than hurt, and was soon all right again, though he coughed a little because of the water he had swallowed.

"Oh, Harry Slater, you were nearly drowned!" cried some of the other children.

"Oh, he wasn't in much danger," said the life guard. "I'd have had him out in another second or two. But, as it was, Bunny Brown got him out of the water all right."

"How can I thank you?" said Harry's mother, as she gave Bunny a hug, all wet as he was, for he and Sue, with many other children, had followed the life-saver to sh.o.r.e when he carried the choking, gasping new boy.

"Oh, it wasn't anything much!" protested Bunny, who did not like a fuss being made over him. "The big wave just knocked him down, and I picked him up."

"He's a brave and clever little boy!" said several ladies on the beach, and if Bunny had not been so tanned and sunburned he might have blushed.

"It was a big wave knocked him down," said Sue. "One of the steamer waves. You have to look out for 'em! I saw him go down and I yelled."

"You were both very watchful of Harry," said Mrs. Slater. "Your mother should be proud of you children."

"There's my mother now," said Bunny, pointing to Mrs. Brown, who had come down with a number of other women.

Thus it was that Bunny, Sue and the new boy became acquainted and Mrs.

Slater also formed a friendship for Mrs. Brown. Soon the excitement had pa.s.sed and the children were in bathing again, while their mothers either bathed, too, or sat on the beach and talked. Bunny and Sue liked Harry, and you may be sure the new boy was very thankful to Bunny Brown for pulling him up out of the water.

"Do they have bigger waves in the ocean than the one that knocked me down?" asked Harry, when the three children were once more having a good time in the bathing pool.

"Oh, I guess they do!" cried Sue. "He should see some of the big waves, shouldn't he, Bunny?"

"Well, I'd like to see 'em," said Harry, with a laugh. "But I wouldn't want to be knocked down by 'em--not if they were bigger than the wave that hit me."

"The waves in the ocean are ever so much bigger," went on Bunny. "And in a storm they're twice as big."

"We were in a storm coming here," explained Sue. "We were on a boat and it rocked like anything, didn't it, Bunny?"

"Yes, it rocked a lot," he agreed. "Come on," he called to his sister.

"Let's go over and dig clams."

"Where can you dig clams?" asked Harry eagerly. Anything about the seash.o.r.e interested him, as it was his first summer at the beach.

"They get hard clams away out in the cove," explained Bunny. "But soft clams grow over there where the tide is out."

"Clams don't grow," declared Sue. "They aren't like apples."

"Yes, clams do grow," declared Bunny. "Else how could a little clam get to be a big one. They grow over there, in that place where there isn't any water," went on Bunny. "And when the tide is out we dig for 'em."

"I was up on my grandpa's farm once, and I helped dig for potatoes in the ground," said Harry. "But I never dug for clams. I'd like to."

"We'll show you how," offered Bunny. "Mother lets us dig soft clams, and she makes chowder of 'em. Come on, we'll go over and dig clams."

Harry was very glad of this chance for fun, and when Mrs. Brown had said her two children might go, and when Mrs. Slater had also consented to let her boy accompany his two new playmates, they set off.

"There isn't any water on the flats when the tide is out," said Mrs.

Brown. "Bunny and Sue often go there to dig clams, and we can see them from here."

Soft clams are not like hard clams. The sh.e.l.l is a sort of bluish black and is quite thin, so it is easily crushed. The soft clam is long and thin, instead of being almost round, like a hard clam.

A soft clam lives down in the mud or sand under water. Within his sh.e.l.l the soft clam has a long tube, which seems as if made of rubber, for it can be stretched out greatly, or made so small as to fit inside the sh.e.l.l.

When the tide covered the low flats at one part of Christmas Tree Cove the soft clams could not be found. But when the tide went out it left bare a large s.p.a.ce of sand and sticky mud, or muck. Then was the time to dig soft clams.

Bunny and Sue knew how to do it. They used a little shovel, though a regular clammer uses a short-handled hoe, digging the wet earth away much as a farmer digs away the earth from a hill of potatoes. Down under the surface the clams are found.