"It would be safer to go to-night," Ward assured her earnestly.
As eager as the other children were to go, they couldn't help laughing, and Mrs. Marley said she thought that the next afternoon would be time enough.
"I do, too," agreed Mrs. Larue decidedly. "If your fathers were here, we might go over at night, though I think it is far better to go to bed early. But we wouldn't find it pleasant going about in a crowd at night, so the afternoon will be much better in every way."
"I'll have lunch early, and we will go as soon as it is over," Mrs. Williamson promised. "Then we can have a long afternoon there and you will have a chance to go into everything and see everything."
Mrs. Williamson was "cook" that week. The mothers took turns so that the work might be evenly divided.
They were down on the beach—where Ward and Artie had brought the mail—and now the active mind of Jess suggested that they might go wading and pick up shells. So they took off their shoes and stockings and left them under the tent where the three mothers were comfortably established with their book and sewing, and off they went to walk and wade along the edge of the ocean.
"Here comes Joe Anderson and Albert Holmes," said Fred, looking up the beach. "I wonder where they're going?"
"Hello!" was Joe's greeting. "Been over to the carnival?"
"We're going to-morrow afternoon," Fred informed him. "Have you seen it?"
"On our way now," answered Albert Holmes. "Don't you want to come? All of you. Somebody at the hotel said it was pretty good."