“They aren’t any good for us!” exclaimed Russ.  “I was thinking maybe there’d be a toy steam engine in the box.”

“If there had been it would have been spoiled by the sea water,” said Cousin Tom with a smile.  “Dolls are about the best thing that could be in the box.  They are light and wouldn’t sink.  And, being so well wrapped up, they didn’t get very wet.  We can take them home to Rose and Mun Bun and Margy and——­”

“Oh, there’ll be one for Violet!” cried Russ.  “Now I can give her back a doll for the one that sunk when my boat upset!  Save the nicest doll for Violet!”

“Yes, I think that would be no more than fair,” said Daddy Bunker.  “The sea took Violet’s doll and the sea gives her back another.  How many dolls did you say there were, Cousin Tom?”

“Six.  One for each of the six little Bunkers.”

“Pooh!  I don’t want a doll!” exclaimed Russ.  “I’m too big!”

“So’m I!” added Laddie.

“Very well.  And as there are six dolls and only four who will want them, that will leave two over, so if Rose or Violet or Mun Bun loses a doll we’ll have two extra ones.  Only I hope they won’t lose anything more while we’re here,” and Daddy Bunker smiled.

“Where do you suppose the dolls came from?” asked Russ as Cousin Tom packed them back in the box so the case could be carried to the bungalow.

“It’s hard to say,” was the answer.  “As the tag on the box has been washed off we don’t know to whom the dolls belonged.  They may have gotten in a load of refuse from New York by mistake, from one of the big stores, and been dumped into the sea, or they may have been lost off some vessel in a storm.  Or there may even have been a wreck.

“Anyhow the box of dolls, well wrapped up from the water, has been floating around for some time, I should say.  It came to us once but we lost it.  Then we had another chance at it and we didn’t lose it.  Now we’ll take the dolls home and see what Rose, Violet and the others have to say about them.”

It was a jolly home-going, even though no fish had been caught.  Long before they were at the bungalow but within sight of it Laddie and Russ cried: 

“Look what we got!”

“We found the box again!”

Rose, Violet, Margy and Mun Bun came running out to see what it all meant.

“Did you find my gold locket?” asked Rose eagerly.

“No, my dear, we didn’t find that,” her father answered.

“Did you get my doll back from the bottom of the ocean?” Violet called.

“Well, we pretty nearly did,” answered Russ.  “Anyhow, we got you one I guess maybe you’ll like as well.”

Cousin Tom gave Russ one of the Japanese dolls from the box and, with it in his arms, Russ ran toward his little sister.

“Look!  Here it is!” he cried.

“Oh!  Oh!  Oh!” gasped Violet, hardly able to believe her eyes.  “Oh, what a lovely, lovely doll!”