“Yes, we’ll be down on the beach every day,” said Ted. “Come on, Trouble!” he called to his small brother. “We’re going home!”
“I want to dig a well and let water come in it for the nellifunt to drink!” asserted Trouble.
“What does he mean by a nellifunt?” asked Mr. Randall.
“He means an elephant—he’s crazy about them. He fed them peanuts in the circus,” explained Janet.
“And an elephant almost stepped on him in the circus parade. Mr. Keller pulled him out of the way just in time, and that’s how we know Mr. and Mrs. Keller,” said her brother. “Come on, Trouble! We have to go!” he called.
“I want to make a well an’ have water come in for the nellifunt an’——” Trouble was finding many reasons for staying.
“Elephants don’t drink salt water,” Janet informed William.
This, however, might not have made Trouble willing to come away. But just then a wave, bigger than any others that had rolled on the beach, came sweeping up. It washed away the sand that William had dug out, and not only filled with salt water the hole he had dug, but it washed the hole away and splashed up to the little boy’s ankles.
“I—I guess I go home with you,” he mumbled, for he was a bit frightened. “I go home now.”
“The tide’s coming in,” remarked Mr. Randall. “I think we’d better move,” he told his wife, as he helped her to arise and then let down the big, striped sun umbrella. “We’ll look for you on the beach to-morrow,” he told the children.