“Yes, I think it is,” was the answer.  “Would you like to see it?”

Russ thought he would, and Laddie wanted to go also, but his mother said he was too small to go out in the storm.

“It is a bad storm,” said Cousin Tom.  “I saw a fisherman as I was coming back from the village this morning early and he said he never felt a worse blow.  The sea is very high.”

Daddy Bunker and Cousin Tom put on “oilskins,” that is, suits of cloth covered with a sort of yellow rubber, through which the water could not come.

A small suit with a hat of the same kind, called a “sou’wester,” was found for Russ, and then the three started down for the beach.  It was hard work walking against the wind, which came out of the northeast, and the rain stung Russ in the face so that he had to walk with his head down most of the time and let his father and Cousin Tom lead him.

“Oh, what big waves!” cried Russ as he got within sight of the beach.  And indeed the surf was very high.  The tide was in and this, with the force of the wind, sent the big billows crashing up on the beach with a noise like thunder.

“I guess no fishermen could go out in that, could they, Daddy?” asked the little boy.

“No, indeed, Son!  This weather is bad for the fishermen and all who are at sea,” said Mr. Bunker.

They remained looking at the heavy waves for some time and then went back to the house.  Russ was glad to be indoors again, away from the blow and noise of the storm.

“Do you often have such blows here?” asked Mother Bunker of Cousin Ruth.

“Well, I haven’t been here, at this beach, very long, but almost always toward the end of August and the beginning of September there are hard storms at the shore.”

It rained so hard that the six little Bunkers could not go out to play and Cousin Ruth and their mother had to make some amusement for them in the bungalow.

“Have you ever been up in the attic?” asked Cousin Ruth.

“No!” cried the six little Bunkers.

“Well, you may play up there,” said Cousin Ruth.  “It isn’t very big, but you can pretend it is a playhouse and do as you please.”

With shouts of joy the children hurried up to the attic.  Indeed it was a small place.  But the six little Bunkers liked it.  There were so many little holes into which they could crawl away and hide.

The four who liked to play with dolls brought up their Japanese toys, and Russ and Laddie found some of their playthings, so they had lots of fun in the bungalow attic.  Cousin Ruth gave them something to eat and they played they were shipwrecked sailors part of the time.  With the wind howling outside and the rain beating down on the roof, it was very easy to pretend this.

The storm lasted three days, and toward the end the grown folks in Cousin Tom’s bungalow began to wish it would stop, not only because they were tired of the wind and rain, but because the children were fretting to be out.