But this did no good either, and though the search was a careful one, and though the sand was gone over again, the lost locket was not picked up.
"I'm going to dig every day until I find it!" said Rose.
"And I'll help!" added Russ.
"So will I!" said Laddie; and the other children, when they knew what a loss had come to Rose, said they, also, would help.
If it had not been for this accident the visit of the six little Bunkers to Seaview would have been without a flaw. Even as it was, it turned out to be most delightful. Seaview was a fine place to spend the end of the summer, and Cousin Tom and his wife made the children feel so at home, and did so much for them, that Russ and the others said they never had been in a nicer place.
"If I only had my locket!" sighed Rose, as the days passed.
But it seemed it would never be found, and after a time, the thought of it passed, in a measure, from the little girl's mind. She did not speak of it often, though sometimes when she went down on the beach, near the holes she and Russ had dug in the moonlight, Rose looked about and scraped the sand to and fro with a shell or a bit of driftwood.
But as the beach looks pretty much alike in many places, it is hard to know whether, after the first few times, Rose dug in the right place.
Cousin Ruth looked again all through the bungalow for the gold locket, and, whenever any one thought of it, he or she poked about in the sand. But the locket seemed gone forever.
There was plenty to do at Seaview to have fun. The children could go in wading and swimming, they could play in the sand, they could sail toy boats in the inlet and they could go out in a real boat with their father or Cousin Tom.