“Let the box go,” said Daddy Bunker.  “I guess there was nothing very much in it.”

But the children thought differently.  They stood looking out at the unopened box, now drifting to sea, and thought of the different things that might be in it.  Each one had an idea of some toy he or she liked best.

“Well, we waited too long about opening it,” said Mr. Bunker.  “We should have pulled the box farther up on the beach, Russ.”

“That’s right,” said Cousin Tom.  “The tides are getting high now, as fall is coming on, and the tides are always highest in the spring and the autumn.  But maybe we can get the box back, after all.”

“How?” asked Russ eagerly.

“Well, it may come ashore again, farther up the beach,” replied Cousin Tom.

“Then somebody else may find it and open it,” Russ remarked.

“Yes, that may happen,” said his father.  “Well, we won’t worry over it.  We didn’t lose anything, for we never really had it.”

But, just the same, the six little Bunkers could not help feeling sorry for themselves at not having seen what was in the box.  They kept wondering and wondering what it could have been.

But a day or so later they had nearly forgotten about what might have been a treasure, for they found many other things to do.

One afternoon Margy and Mun Bun, who had been freshly washed and combed, went down to the wharf where Cousin Tom kept his boat.

“Don’t get in it, though,” warned their mother.  “You were carried away in a boat once, and I don’t want it to happen again.  Keep away from the boats.”

“We will!” promised Mun Bun and Margy.

When they reached the shore of the inlet Mun Bun said: 

“Oh, Margy, look how low the water is!  We can wade over to that little island!”

“Yes,” agreed Margy, “we can.  We can take off our shoes an’ stockin’s, an’ carry ’em.  Mother didn’t tell us not to go wadin’.”

And Mrs. Bunker had not, for she did not think the children would do this.  So Margy and Mun Bun sat down on the wharf and made themselves barefooted.  Then they started to wade across a shallow place in the inlet to where a little island of sand showed in the middle.  And Margy and Mun Bun did not know what was going to happen to them, or they never would have done this.

CHAPTER XVII

MAROONED

“That’s a nice little island over there,” said Mun Bun to Margy as they waded along.

“Yes, it’s a terrible nice little island,” agreed his sister.

“An’ we can camp out there an’ have lots of fun.”

“Oh, Mun Bun, catch me!  I’m sinking down in a hole!”

“All right, I’ll get you!” cried the little boy, and he grasped hold of his sister’s arm.  She had stepped into a little sandy hole, and the water came up half way to her knees.  Of course that was not very deep, and when Margy saw she was not going to sink down very far she was no longer frightened.