polly was down on her knees, flinging handfuls of sand behind her with feverish energy.

"what's the matter?" jess demanded. "what's underneath?"

polly never stopped scooping up the sand.

"i don't know," she flung over her shoulder, with a flurry of sand. "i don't know for sure, but i think the boys are buried in this."

that roused margy and jess to action, and they began, too, to dig. a few feet behind the mound there was an upheaval and fred's face and shoulders came into view. polly never stopped digging, though jess and margy paused and stared.

"i've got ward," sputtered fred, and he pulled the younger boy up beside him.

then they all rushed to polly, who had uncovered the sturdy legs in their brown socks that belonged to artie. a frenzied and concerted effort uncovered the whole boy in less time than it[pg 94] takes to tell it—a purple-faced artie who was several minutes recovering his breath, but who was all right as soon as he found he could breathe.

"gee," said fred, "i never thought the thing would bust in like that!"

"i couldn't tell what hit us," ward observed, trying to rub the sand out of his hair.

"you didn't see our cave, did you, polly?" asked artie, apparently unaware that he had been nearly suffocated.

"is that a cave?" margy's tone was scornful. "is that what you've been doing all this time? it didn't look like much."

"that's because you didn't see the inside," said fred. "you could almost stand up in the main room, and we had a lot of tunnels and passages we were building."

"it was great," and artie nodded. "we were going to have the largest cave any one ever made at sunrise beach."

"it looks as though there'd been an earthquake, doesn't it?" giggled jess.

all the tunnels and passages the boys had labored so faithfully to dig had caved in, together with the mound which had been the roof of the main room. as jess said, the depressions did look as though an earthquake, or some such[pg 95] havoc-maker, had visited that section of beach.

"well, i don't think you'd better build any more caves," polly said, with decision. "it isn't safe. artie might have choked before we dug him out."

"you mean, you dug him out," fred declared. "you're the one who had your wits about you, polly. what made you think we were in the cave?"

"i wasn't sure," admitted polly. "but when the sand began to break down, i thought 'maybe the boys are under it somewhere,' and if you were, i knew the only thing to do was to dig you up."

"we figured out it was wet enough to pack and make firm walls," fred explained. "but i guess it wasn't. of course, if we had had boards we could have fixed up a good cave—shored it up as they do in mines, you know."

"come on and let's go swimming," suggested margy, anxious to get away from the talk of cave-building.

the boys, too, had had quite enough of their secret, and they abandoned the scene of their labors without a protest. when the three mothers heard what had happened, they declared that no more sand caves were to be thought of, as long as they remained at sunrise beach.

[pg 96]

artie and ward went over for the mail that afternoon, and when they returned they were filled with news of a carnival that had come to the edge of the town and set up its tents on the vacant lots bordering the village limits.

"it's exactly like a circus, only different," said ward, and then wondered why the others laughed at him.

"there's a merry-go-round," artie announced, looking at jess, who had a weakness for that form of amusement.

"and fat ladies and snakes and everything, probably," contributed fred.

mrs. marley laughed and said that if fred liked fat ladies he need not go so far from home.

"you're not fat, mother!" polly protested indignantly.

pretty mrs. marley laughed again and declared that if she wasn't, it was not mrs. williamson's fault.

"for she will persist in giving us berry short-cakes, and i cannot refuse them," said mrs. marley regretfully. "well, chicks, i suppose we'll have to go over and see this wonderful carnival some day."

"they don't stay very long in one place," hinted artie.

[pg 97]

"my goodness, won't it be there to-morrow?" his mother asked, in seeming alarm.

"it would be safer to go to-night," ward assured her earnestly.

as eager as the other children were to go, they couldn't help laughing, and mrs. marley said she thought that the next afternoon would be time enough.

"i do, too," agreed mrs. larue decidedly. "if your fathers were here, we might go over at night, though i think it is far better to go to bed early. but we wouldn't find it pleasant going about in a crowd at night, so the afternoon will be much better in every way."

"i'll have lunch early, and we will go as soon as it is over," mrs. williamson promised. "then we can have a long afternoon there and you will have a chance to go into everything and see everything."

mrs. williamson was "cook" that week. the mothers took turns so that the work might be evenly divided.

they were down on the beach—where ward and artie had brought the mail—and now the active mind of jess suggested that they might go wading and pick up shells. so they took off their shoes and stockings and left them under the tent where the three mothers were comfortably estab[pg 98]lished with their book and sewing, and off they went to walk and wade along the edge of the ocean.

"here comes joe anderson and albert holmes," said fred, looking up the beach. "i wonder where they're going?"

"hello!" was joe's greeting. "been over to the carnival?"

"we're going to-morrow afternoon," fred informed him. "have you seen it?"

"on our way now," answered albert holmes. "don't you want to come? all of you. somebody at the hotel said it was pretty good."

"we'll wait, thanks," fred responded. "say, isn't that somebody calling to you?"

joe did not turn, but he seemed to know that fred was right.

"it's carrie pepper and mattie helms," he said hurriedly. "come on, albert, we'll have to hurry. you see, fred, we said we'd take the girls to the carnival, and then we changed our minds. carrie wants to eat everything she sees and mattie isn't much better, and we haven't got money enough to take them and have a good time ourselves. are they coming this way?"

"sure! and waving for you to stop," fred reported.

without another word joe and albert hurried[pg 99] off up the beach, carefully refraining from looking over their shoulders.

"nice unselfish people," remarked margy sarcastically.

"i think it's pretty mean to invite the girls and then go off and leave them," jess said mildly.

"what are you going to say?" polly asked fred.

"tell 'em the truth, of course," that brave young man declared. "carrie ought to hear it once in a while."

he looked so determined that polly and jess had hard work not to laugh when, as the red-faced carrie and the wilted mattie came up to them and demanded, "what did joe say? where was he going?" fred began to stutter.

"i—i guess he was going to town," he said, and not another word.

"he and albert are going to the carnival," chirped artie, who had a passion for telling all he knew, as polly had discovered more than once when she wished to keep riddle club matters a secret.

"they are! why, they asked us to go!" exclaimed mattie helms. "last night we had a beach party and we invited them, and joe said would we go to the carnival this afternoon? i think that's a funny way to act."

[pg 100]

"what did joe anderson say, artie?" said carrie suddenly, and flattering artie with her attention. usually she ignored him.

polly and the others stared fascinatedly at artie. they were all hoping that he would not remember joe's remark concerning carrie' appetite. by good luck he passed that over, but his memory was appallingly clear as regarded the rest of joe's speech.

"he said he and albert didn't have enough money to take you and mattie and have a good time themselves," repeated artie slowly and carefully as though he was on the witness stand.

an angry color came into mattie's face and she opened the elaborate beaded bag she carried.

"carrie and i don't need joe anderson to take us to any carnival," she declared loudly. "daddy gave me five dollars when he heard we were going. carrie and i'll have a good time all by ourselves."

"go to it," advised fred, in all sincerity. "we're going to take in the show to-morrow."

carrie and mattie plowed on through the sand, and the riddle club members trailed silently back to the water. polly's eyes were dancing, and, happening to glance at fred, she began to laugh. jess and margy snickered, and in a moment all six were laughing uncontrollably.

"oh dear!" cried jess, wiping her eyes. "did[pg 101] you ever hear of anything so funny! mattie and carrie probably have more money to spend than the boys have."

"i hope joe and albert see them coming and dodge them," fred gurgled. "can't you picture those two boys dodging carrie and mattie all the afternoon, afraid they'll be asked to treat them to a soda or take them on a merry-go-round? and all the time carrie and mattie will be having a grand time and taking in all the sights as fast as they can! i hope carrie gets a chance to tell joe what she thinks of him. trust her to do it."

"mother said you weren't to talk about carrie pepper the way you do," margy reproved him.

"i don't think she's so bad," said artie in a tone that convulsed the others again.

"she probably thinks you're a wonder," jess told him.

"the original little information booth, aren't you, artie?" fred added.

artie happened to find an exceptionally large clam shell just then and wisely forebore to argue. and the riddle club spent the rest of the afternoon amiably, asking and answering riddles, searching for shells, and watching the fishing boats come in.

"there's a motor boat," said jess, as a small[pg 102] boat some distance out turned and sped down the coast. "look how fast it goes!"

"that's larry's boat," fred said. "it's called the clara and he takes picnic parties out."

fred had gone on several fishing trips with his father, and already he knew most of the boats at the beach and the names of their skippers.

"who is larry?" asked margy idly.

"oh, he's a native," fred answered. "every one calls him larry. i never heard his other name."

artie wanted to know if he was a native.

"not of sunrise beach," jess told him good-naturedly. "you're a native of river bend, artie."

"why am i?" insisted artie, whose thirst for information was remarkable.

"you happened to be born there," fred told him. "now i'll ask you a riddle: what is hung in the middle and wags both ways?"

"my tongue," said artie, with irresistible sweet temper.

they carried home several additions to artie's collection of dishes and were careful not to leave them on the porch railing. the talk at supper was all of the carnival.