“You are panting, you poor dear,” said Jane sympathetically.
“I was scared about Charlie. I believe that did me up more than all of the fancy somersaults I turned.”
“Why don’t you cuddle down and take a nap?” suggested Jane.
“I believe I will,” Mabel curled herself up in the sand and in a moment was fast asleep.
Jane, glad to have quiet for her thoughts, directed her attention to the bathers. The pretty Lorna had dived through the breakers and was riding the waves like a veritable mermaid. She was a good swimmer and seemed perfectly at home in the surf.
“Isn’t she wonderful?”
“Did you ever see anyone so beautiful?”
The flatterers were forced to shout their compliments in loud tones so that the pretty Lorna could hear them above the noise of the breakers.
“Come in!” she commanded. The young men looked rather ruefully at the curling waves and the girls took tentative steps in the direction of their princess. But tentative steps are fatal on a beach like that with a heavy uncertain sea. The “boiling” that Mabel and Charlie had just undergone was nothing to the one that the timid young men and maidens now were subjected to. It was the fault of one young man who hesitated and was lost. Over he went and clutching wildly grasped the arm of one of the girls, who in turn pulled down another and then the merry war went on.
“Help! Help!” they shrieked.