"I shall have just as much fun as the children," replied the mother of Bunny and Sue Brown.
Uncle Tad and Bunker Blue were also delighted to go, and Bunny wanted to take his shovel and dig for soft clams and have a clambake on the beach.
"Not now, dear," said his mother. "It is quite a lot of work, and you get so muddy digging clams. After a while, when daddy can be with us, we may have a big bake on the beach some night."
"And maybe Mr. Ravenwood will come!" exclaimed Sue.
"Maybe he will," agreed her mother.
A little later they were all seated on the sands, the older folk in the shade of some sun umbrellas that Bunker Blue and Uncle Tad put up, while Bunny, Sue, and Harry played out in the sunshine. They were tanned as brown as autumn leaves and no longer sunburned.
The children dug holes in the sand, made miniature cities and railroads, built tunnels which caved in, and finally started to make a cabin of driftwood.
Uncle Tad and Bunker Blue were helping at this, and they planned to make a regular thatched roof of seaweed. The little shack on the sand was half done when the puffing of a motor boat was heard near shore and a voice hailed the little party.
"Can you tell me where Christmas Tree Cove is?" asked a young man in the boat.
"It is right here," answered Mrs. Brown, waving her hand toward the groups of evergreens on the shore.