“Maybe a starfish might get it,” said the little girl.

“Oh, no!” laughed Daddy Bunker.  “Starfish like oysters, but they do not care for gold lockets.  I’ll find yours for you in the morning, Rose.”

This made Rose feel better, and she went inside the bungalow with Russ and her father.  Mrs. Bunker, as well as Cousin Tom and his wife, felt sorry on hearing of Rose’s loss, but they, too, felt sure that the ornament would be found on the sand in the morning.

I do not know whether or not Rose dreamed about her lost locket.  Certainly she thought about it the last thing before she fell asleep.  But she slumbered very soundly, and, if she dreamed at all, she did not remember what her visions of the night were.

But she thought of her locket as soon as she awoke, however, and, dressing quickly, she ran down on the sand.  Her father was ahead of her, though, and, with a rake in his hand, he was going over the beach near the place where Russ and Rose had dug the holes.

“Is this the only place you children hunted for gold?” asked Mr. Bunker, as he saw Rose coming along.

“Yes, Daddy,” she answered.  “And we were right there when I didn’t have my locket any more.  Can’t you find it?”

“I haven’t yet,” he answered.  “I’ve raked over the sand as carefully as I could, but I didn’t see the locket.”

“Did you look down into the holes we dug, Daddy?”

“Yes, and all around them.  It’s queer, but the locket seems to have disappeared.”

“Maybe a starfish came up and took it down into the ocean with him.”

“No, Rose.  If the locket was dropped on the beach it is here yet.  But it is rather a large place, and perhaps I am not looking just where I ought to.  However I will not give up.”

Daddy Bunker looked for some little time longer, pulling the sand about with the rake, but no locket showed.  Then others looked, including the children, Cousin Tom, his wife and Mother Bunker.  But they had no better luck.

“Well, we know one thing,” said Daddy Bunker.  “There is gold in this sand now if there was not before.  Rose’s gold locket is here.”

“And I don’t guess I’ll ever find it,” said the little girl with a sigh.  “Oh, dear!”

“Maybe it slipped off your neck in the house,” suggested Cousin Ruth.  “I’ll look carefully, and you may help me.”

But this did no good either, and though the search was a careful one, and though the sand was gone over again, the lost locket was not picked up.

“I’m going to dig every day until I find it!” said Rose.

“And I’ll help!” added Russ.

“So will I!” said Laddie; and the other children, when they knew what a loss had come to Rose, said they, also, would help.

If it had not been for this accident the visit of the six little Bunkers to Seaview would have been without a flaw.  Even as it was, it turned out to be most delightful.  Seaview was a fine place to spend the end of the summer, and Cousin Tom and his wife made the children feel so at home, and did so much for them, that Russ and the others said they never had been in a nicer place.