“What is it, my dear?” asked Mrs. Dent. “Did you forget something? Or do you want a little more lemonade?”
“No, thank you,” Janet answered. “But I came back to get my little brother.”
“Your little brother—the one who has such a funny name, Trouble? Do you mean him?”
“Yes’m. Is he here?” asked Janet, looking around the room. “I thought maybe he might have come back to listen to that big sea shell. He likes to hear it roar.”
On the floor, near the mantle in Mrs. Dent’s room, was a big shell, pearly pink inside. By holding this to the ear a faint roaring sound could be heard. Some people imagine this is the distant roar of the sea, which remains inside the shell, no matter how far it may be taken from the ocean. But the same roaring sound may be heard if you hold a kitchen bowl over your ear, so, really, the shell has nothing to do with it. The roar is caused by other sounds—sounds that may be all around you, and the ocean has nothing to do with it.
However, Trouble had an idea that the shell roared like the waves on Sunset Beach, and he had spent most of his time while in the lighthouse holding the shell to his ear. When Ted and Janet missed him they imagined he had slipped back to play again with the shell.
“No, Trouble isn’t here. He didn’t come back,” Mrs. Dent said. “At least, I didn’t see him. Of course he may have slipped in, and have gone into the tower where my husband is. I’ll ask him.”
But Mr. Dent had not seen the little fellow, and a hasty search made it certain that he had not come back to his new friends. Janet began to look worried. She went to the door and saw Ted waiting for her. While Ted waited he was making a hole in the sand. But he could not have been looking for the lost keys and ring, for they had been dropped at a different spot on the beach—a place not far from the Martin cottage.
“Trouble isn’t here, Ted!” called Janet.
“He isn’t?” There was a note of alarm in Ted’s voice.