"You'd better not let any one see you taking the fence," warned Fred. "Leave it alone till after breakfast, and I'll help you carry it down to the water. We'll get Ward to help."
Artie decided that Fred was interested in the raft—as indeed he was—and as he knew he could not carry the heavy boards down to the ocean without help, he readily agreed to let the rest of his carpenter work go till after breakfast.
Fortune favored the conspirators, for as soon as breakfast was over Mrs. Larue declared that she must get wool to finish a sweater she was knitting and that as she had tried and could not match it in Sunrise Beach, she meant to take the Shore Line bus and go down the coast to Glen Haven, where there were larger shops.
"Let's all go," Mrs. Marley suggested. "I've always wanted to take a trip on that bus—it follows the boulevard part of the way, and they say the scenery is beautiful."
Polly and Margy and Jess were eager to go, but the boys hung back.
"It's no fun going into stores," Fred complained.
"I hate standing around for hours," almost wept Ward.
And Artie, his raft ever in mind, remarked that he didn't feel as though he could spare the time.
"That's a speech you have borrowed from your daddy," laughed Mrs. Marley. "But if you boys want to stay at home, I don't see any reason why you should not. We can leave you a nice lunch on the kitchen table, and perhaps you'll have a good time without any feminine friends to bother you."
"If you go in bathing, promise not to go out beyond the tent piling," Mrs. Williamson said quickly.