“But what will the dollies do?”
Janie’s doll waved her mysterious package, and every other doll waved one also, crying:
“Wait and you will see.”
Then all disappeared in the bath-houses; the girls hurried into their suits and awaited the dollies’ reappearance with the greatest impatience. When they finally came they pranced around them and cried, “Oh, you darlings, where did you get them?” And no wonder, for they were clad in the gayest little bathing suits you ever saw, with all the colors of the rainbow.
How pretty they looked skipping about! They had a merry game of tag, while waiting for the dolls’ grandmammas to disrobe, and made a beautiful picture, dotting the sand with dainty bits of bright color. At last all were ready, and they plunged into the surf. Such fun as they had!
The storm had made frothy, snowy waves, which came in faster and faster, tumbling over each other, as if to see which would reach the shore first. The children and dolls took hold of hands and rushed in among them, only to be hurled back in one confused mass of legs, arms and heads. For a moment it would have been hard for an onlooker to tell just what it was, but the tangle soon unraveled, and the performance was repeated with an accompaniment of wild shrieks of laughter, as the waves rushed over the heads of dollies, children and mammas. The mammas were soon tired out and sat on the beach to rest and watch this performance on nature’s stage, and, as the waves tossed the children and dolls out on the sand, they laughed till the tears ran down their cheeks.
Some of the dolls were left standing on their heads, others walking about on their hands, and one poor little doll was stuck in the sand, with one leg and an arm sticking up in the air. They helped her out and she ran into the water again, undaunted at such a slight mishap. At last they came out breathless and lay down on the sand to rest before dressing.