“Here’s a stick to pry it open with,” offered Teddy, handing his mother a stick with which he had been digging in the sand.
Using this, Mrs. Martin opened the shell. Crowding about her and looking over her shoulders, the Curlytops saw within the shell something that made their eyes open wide with wonder.
“Oh!” cried Janet. “There’s Mrs. Keller’s gold wedding ring!”
“And Mr. Keller’s bunch of keys!” added Ted.
“I believe that’s just what Trouble found!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin, shaking the sand out of the shell and revealing more clearly a bunch of jingling keys and a gold ring. The ring was bright, but the keys were red with rust.
“How did they get there?” asked Teddy.
“It would be hard to say,” answered his mother. “They may have been brushed into the open shell when the search was going on. Or some children playing here, and not knowing the keys and ring were lost, may have found them and put them in the shell for fun. Then they buried the shell, keys and ring and Trouble just found them. At any rate, they must have been here for some time. But they surely are the things Mr. and Mrs. Keller lost. Oh, I’m very glad, for the dear old couple worried so about them.”
“Let’s take them over now!” suggested Janet.
“Yes, right away!” added her brother.
“I want my shell!” demanded Trouble. “I want my little nellifunt clam shell.”