This was the limit always imposed on the children when they went in swimming without an older person at hand. The boys promised readily, and after half an hour of bustling preparation, the three mothers and their daughters were off.
"Now come on out and help me with the raft," coaxed Artie, as soon as the house was quiet. "Ward will want to eat up the lunch right away, if he stays here."
Ward was even then lifting the cloth which covered the lunch that had been left for them, but he declared that he meant only to look and had no intention of tasting.
"Come away from temptation," Fred insisted, dragging him across the kitchen floor and out the door. "We have a busy day ahead of us. We have to try this raft and get it back in place before my dad and yours and Mr. Marley come to-night."
Ward had not known that Artie was building a raft, much less that he had "borrowed" a section of the fence, and his questions rather nettled the young builder, who was intent on getting his invention down to the water-side.
"How do you know that it will float?" asked Ward, as he tugged manfully at the end allotted to him.
"I don't!" puffed Artie. "But the only way to find out is to put it in the water. Are you lifting, Ward, or just talking?"
Ward was purple in the face. The fence boards were heavy and the section which had fallen was wide. Artie had been unwilling, or afraid, to cut it, so he really had a larger raft than he would have chosen to build.
By dint of much tugging and dragging, the boys managed to get the heavy thing across the sand and down to the water. They were dripping with perspiration when they finally accomplished this feat and were glad to sit down and rest a moment before the launching.
"I'm glad there isn't any one around," confided Artie, glancing up the deserted beach. "It may not float, and then we'd feel foolish."