"But I wouldn't want to live all alone and have no one to play with," objected Jess.
"She isn't all alone—she lives with her father," Ward declared.
"Well, fathers are all right, but you need a mother and some other people, too," Jess informed him, and Mr. Williamson laughed and said she was right.
"If she comes down to the beach and we see her, she can come to a meeting of the Riddle Club, can't she, Polly?" Margy suggested.
Polly said of course, and just then Artie caught a glimpse of the ocean and Ward saw a man in a bathing suit and every one was suddenly aware that they had reached the seashore at last.
"Where's our house?" said Margy, staring at the rows of houses on either side of the street as though she expected to recognize the house they were to occupy.
"It's at the other end of town, Margy," her father said. "This is the comparatively new section—pretty new houses and bungalows. There's the hotel—we'll come back there for dinner. Well, children, there's the ocean—are you glad to see it?"
They had turned down another street and were now facing the great blue ocean that lay smoothly before them. It was as smooth as the Rocio River, except for the breakers that broke and ran up the beach and back again.
The children had seen the ocean, for they had gone on excursions several times from River Bend. This was the first summer they were to stay for any length of time near salt water, and they looked forward to many good times.
"Is this the unfashionable part of Sunrise Beach?" asked Margy, a little uncertainly.