Then he stopped.
"Hurry up," prodded Ward. "I thought you said you could guess any riddle."
"I didn't say without thinking," Artie retorted. "When does the ocean resemble a big bakery? Keep still and let me think."
Artie was famous for taking a fearful length of time to meditate on his answers to riddles, and the others settled down for a long wait. He was staring out to sea as though he expected the water to give him help of some kind.
"When does the ocean—" he kept murmuring. "When does the ocean——"
"Fish cakes!" he said triumphantly. "That's it, isn't it, Ward?"
"They don't have fish cakes in a bakery," Ward informed him. "Besides, I never heard of fish cakes in the ocean."
"If a fish hit the side of that old piling he'd be a fish cake, I guess," argued Artie.
"Well that isn't the answer, anyway," Ward declared, with finality.
"Let every one have a guess," suggested Polly. "If Artie gives up, ask Margy."