Then, in spite of her resolution to keep perfectly quiet and wake no one else, she jumped and shrieked. A huge black spider had spun silently down before her, and now dangled just under her nose.
"What is it?" cried Margy, rushing to the window. "What is it, Polly?"
A snicker made Polly look up. There was Ward perched on the upper balcony, holding the make-believe spider by a string.
"You're a wretch," Polly informed him, laughing. "How can you be playing tricks the very first morning, Ward? How long have you been up?"
"Hours," said Ward confidently. "I'm hungry."
Polly's shriek had wakened the others, and, as she waited for Margy and Jess to get dressed, they found the grown-ups downstairs when they went down. The boys did not wait for the warning bell, but came tumbling down, three steps at a time.
"Did you know there were bathhouses under the porch?" demanded Fred, who had made an inspection tour, when he came in to breakfast. "Dinky little closets where we can dress and not have to bring wet suits into the house. Say, I think this is a great place."
After breakfast, the three mothers announced that they wanted a morning to "put things to rights," and they said they would work much better if every one went down to the beach and stayed till lunch time.