But at last the cars stopped for good, and after waiting until everybody else had left the train, the Roverings concluded that they had actually arrived at the famous Manhattan Beach.
The two Eds were for at once dashing off to the shore, but Mrs. Rovering declared that they hadn't time for play yet, as they must first walk up as far as the new hotel, so as to be sure they had seen everything. Mr. Rovering, however, had caught sight of the bathing pavilion, and decided that, for fear they should forget it, they had better take a dip in the ocean immediately.
So they all went into the Atlantic—and a good deal of it into them; and on coming out, Mrs. Rovering was lost in more wonder than ever when she found that neither of the Eds was drowned.
"And now we must eat our lunch," said Mr. Rovering, when they were once more wandering along the broad plank-walk in the broiling sun.
"And there's a superb place where we may partake of it," added his wife, indicating the invitingly cool-looking piazza of a large hotel, which was plentifully provided with tables and chairs, seemingly on purpose for just such hungry lunch-laden mortals as themselves.
So they all went up the steps, and choosing a table in the shadiest corner, they sat down, and began to unpack the basket.
Mrs. Rovering had just taken a creamcake and a box of sardines from the centre of a lemon pie when a waiter walked up to them with a card-board sign, which read, "Positively no picnic parties allowed in the parlors or on the piazzas of this hotel."
Now this sudden turn of affairs was very humiliating to the Roverings, the more so as they had all grown very hungry after their bath, and the contents of the basket had a most inviting odor.
But there was no help for it; so the sardines and sandwiches and lemon pie and creamcakes and all the silver-plated ware, were thrust hurriedly back in a dreadful heap of confusion, and the four set out for the beach, feeling sure that they would not be molested there.
However, when they sat down on the dry sand, they found it so hot, and it flew about and into everything so easily, that they determined to move down nearer to the water.