"What's the tide?" went on the little girl.
"The moon," added Russ. "I heard Mother read a story, and it said the moon makes the tides."
"Does it, Daddy?" persisted Violet. She certainly had her questioning cap on that evening.
"Yes, the moon causes the tides," said Daddy Bunker. "But just how, it is a bit hard to tell to such little children. The moon pulls on the water in the oceans, just as a magnet pulls on a piece of iron or steel. When the moon is on one side of the earth it pulls the water into a sort of bunch, or hill, there, and that makes it lower in the opposite part of the earth. That is low tide. Then, as the moon changes, it pulls the water up in the place where it was low before, and that makes high tide. And when the tide is high in our ocean here it pushes a lot of water up Clam River. And when the water is low in our ocean here the water runs out of Clam River. That is what makes high tide and low tide here."
"Oh," said Violet, though I am not sure she understood all about it.
But after that Margy and Mun Bun were careful about getting into the boat, even when they felt sure it was tightly tied to the pier. They always waited until some older folks were with them, and this was the best way.
The happy days passed at Cousin Tom's. The six little Bunkers played on the beach, and, now and then, they looked and dug holes to try to find Rose's locket.
"I guess it's gone forever," said the little girl as the days passed and no locket appeared. And she never even dreamed of the strange way good luck was to come to her once more.
One warm day, when all the children were playing down on the sandy shore of the inlet, Violet came running back to the house.
"Mother, make Russ stop!" she cried.