“I thought you said you’d caught a lobster! Looks more as if the lobster caught you!”
“All the same, I’ll dare you to pick up one all by yourself!” indignantly rejoined Paul.
Edith then quickly changed the subject by admiring the star-fish Dudley had brought back.
“Oh,” cried she, “some of them have ten fingers and some only have six. I thought they always had five fingers.”
“That six-fingered one must have had ten originally, as you can see the remaining stumps of the others. Most star-fish do have five points but there are exceptions. This one must have got in a fight with a sea-enemy and had its other fingers bitten off,” explained Fred.
“I wish I could send some of them home,” ventured Dudley.
“They’ll keep all right, if you dry them,” said Billy.
“How?”
“Just spread them out smoothly on a board and leave it in the hot sun—then go way off while they dry. When the smell is dried out you can ship them home in a box.”
“But be sure you find a sunny spot far, far away from the bungalow,” laughed Fred.