one day kenneth and his father went out fishing with captain prout. rose and aunt claire did not care to go, because they did not enjoy fishing. but instead they decided to spend the morning on the sandy beach, not far from the cottage, which was a grand play-room and bathing-place for the children. it was the only sandy beach on that rocky island.
rose ran ahead of her aunt claire, and as soon as she reached the beach she sat down to pull off her shoes and stockings. for in this lovely play-room she never wore shoes, nor even sandals, but ran around with bare toes on the smooth, soft floor, making funny little tracks just as the sandpipers do. but of course rose’s footprints were larger than their three-toed ones.
[98]when they reached the beach they saw that the tide was very low, and that the sand stretched out like a great sheet of paper, smooth and white, without a mark upon it, from the seaweed line to the water. for it was early in the morning, and they were the very first persons on the spot. yesterday they had made houses of sand and had dug deep wells all up and down the beach. but in the night the sea had stolen up and swept everything smooth again, even wiping out the tracks of feet which had crossed and criss-crossed it everywhere,—aunt claire’s tennis shoes, kenneth’s and rose’s little bare footprints, the deep tread of the clam-digger’s rubber boots, and the sandpipers’ light steps. the beach looked like a field covered with newly fallen snow on which nothing has yet made a mark.
then aunt claire, who was always having splendid ideas, thought of a lovely game to play upon this smooth whiteness.
“oh, rose,” she cried, “let us play a new[99] kind of hide-and-seek. i will shut my eyes, and you take this pretty whirly-shell which we found yesterday and hide it somewhere in the sand. then i will try to find it by following the track of your bare feet.”
“oh, goodie!” said rose, clapping her hands. “that is a nice game. play i am a pirate going to hide my treasure in the ground, and you are another pirate hunting for it. blind your eyes, auntie. blind them tight, and don’t you peek!”
aunt claire blinded her eyes and waited until she heard rose call, “coo!” like a pirate. then she looked up, and rose was standing in the deep, soft sand not very far away. but aunt claire knew that she had not hidden the treasure so near. oh, no! rose was too sly a pirate to do that.
aunt claire peered all around very carefully, and finally she spied the marks of little bare toes in the sand near the spot where rose had stood when they first began to play. and she followed the tracks down to the water and[100] up again, winding about in the funniest way,—something like this:—
up and down and round about, twisting in and out, went the funny little marks, till aunt claire’s head whirled dizzily. rose clapped her hands and laughed to see her trying to set her tennis shoes exactly in the track of those crazy wanderings. but at last, close by the water’s edge, aunt claire saw a little something which rose up like a bump on the sand; and about it were the marks of finger-scrapings. she stooped down and dug with her fingers, and soon she cried: “i spy!” and held up the pretty shell which rose had hidden. “the treasure is found!” said aunt claire. “but what a search you made for me, wicked pirate!”
“it is a lovely game,” said rose, hopping[101] up and down with excitement. “now you hide, aunt claire,” rose put her hands over her eyes, and her auntie came back to the soft sand in order to start fair on a smooth piece of beach. pretty soon she cried, “coo!” and the marks of her shoes looked something like this:—
“oh, i never, never can find the treasure in all that whirly-whirly!” cried rose, shaking her curls like a skye terrier. and indeed, it looked very hard. but rose walked right along in the big prints of her auntie’s shoes, and without much trouble she found the shell where it was hidden in the middle of the whirly-figure.
“that was a good hide,” she said.
they played the pirate game for a long time, until the sand was covered up and down with[102] the strangest patterns, and there was hardly room for a fresh footprint anywhere; for this was not a large beach.
“we shall have to stop, now, i suppose,” said rose with a sigh, “and wait until mr. sea has washed out all our marks with his ocean sponge. see, he is creeping up and has begun already. to-morrow the beach will be all smooth and white again so that we can show kenneth how to play buried treasure, too.”
“let us play just once more,” said aunt claire. “it is my turn to hide the treasure, and i think i can find a place which will not be too hard, all among these markings. blind your eyes, little pirate.”
“all right,” said rose, who was a very good-natured pirate. and she closed her eyes.
now there was not much smooth sand for aunt claire to walk in, but she managed to go up and down the beach in a funny parallel-lined pattern, like this:—
and when she called, “coo,” rose started off upon the trail, laughing every time she turned the sharp corner and came back upon the long stretch up or down.
at last she came to the little bubbly mound in the sand where aunt claire had hidden the treasure. she stooped over and her yellow curls swept the sand as she thrust in all her ten fingers with a shout of triumph. presently she jumped up with the treasure in her hand and stood still, examining it curiously. then she gave a squeal of joy and came racing up the beach to her auntie, with her curls flying madly.
“why, aunt claire,” she cried, “it is a really, truly treasure, this time! see what was hidden inside the whirly-shell!” and she held up a bright ten-cent piece which she had pulled out of the little treasure-box.
[104]“so there is,” said her auntie. “i wonder how it got there?”
rose looked at aunt claire and laughed. “i like this game; very specially the end of it,” she said. “now what shall we do next, auntie?”
“we can’t play here any more,” said aunt claire. “the beach is so marked up that if a pirate should hide his treasure here he might never be able to find it again. i would not risk mine, if i were you.”
“no, i suppose i had better not,” said rose, shaking her head. “i think i ought to keep the money for the game to-morrow, shouldn’t i, auntie?” she added, rather wistfully.
“oh, no!” said aunt claire. “a pirate would never do that. you must go up to the store and change it for merchandise. that is what pirates always did in the old days.”
“what is merchandise?” asked rose brightening. then with a sudden thought, “is candy merchandise?” and aunt claire said that it was.
[105]“well, then, you must come with me to the store and share,” said rose, pulling her auntie by the hand. and away both pirates went to the little village store which was about a mile from the cottage.
“i think it is lovely to be a pirate!” cried rose, as she danced along the road with the ten-cent piece in her hand. “i am going to be a pirate every single day.”
“oh, not every day,” said her auntie, in dismay. “the pirates did not go pirating every day, or there would not have been treasure enough to last. they did other things between whiles.”
“i suppose they couldn’t go pirating when it rained,” said rose thoughtfully. “perhaps it may rain to-morrow.”
and it did.
