Suddenly Laddie, who had made a hole in which he could stand, it being so deep that he was half hidden from sight in it, uttered a cry.

“What’s the matter?” asked his mother.  “Did you hurt yourself?”

“Did you dig up a Sallie Growler?” asked Vi.

“Maybe it’s a crab,” said Mun Bun, and he dropped his shovel and started for his mother.

“No, nothing like that,” said Laddie.  “Only—­oh, goody—­I guess I’ve found the treasure!” he shouted.

“Treasure!” cried Russ.  “What do you mean?”

“I guess I’ve found some gold in my hole!” went on Laddie.  “Come and look!  It shines like anything!”

Russ and George leaped out of the holes they were digging and ran toward Laddie.  Mrs. Bunker got up and hurried down the beach.  Mun Bun and Margy followed.  Rose and Violet went too.

“Where is it?” asked Russ, stooping over the edge of his brother’s hole.  “Where’s the treasure?”

“There,” answered Laddie, pointing to something shining in the sand.  It did glitter brightly and it was not buried very deeply, being near the top of the hole, but on the far edge, where Laddie had not done much digging.

“It is gold!” cried George.  “Whoop!  Maybe that boy you knew was right, and there is pirate’s treasure here!”

Mrs. Bunker bent down and looked at what Laddie had uncovered.  Then she took a stick and began carefully to dig around it.

“Here, take my shovel,” offered Laddie.

“No, I don’t want to scratch it, if it is what I think,” said his mother.  “I had better dig with the stick.”

She went on scratching away the sand.  As she did so the piece of shiny thing became larger.  It sparkled more brightly in the sun.

“Is it treasure?” asked Laddie eagerly.  “Did I find some gold treasure?”

“Yes, I think you did, Son,” said Mrs. Bunker.  “It is gold and it is a treasure.”

“Did the pirates hide it?” demanded Russ.

“No, I think not,” said Mrs. Bunker with a smile.  “I think Rose lost it.”

“Rose lost it!” cried the two Bunker boys.  “What?”

“Yes, it is her locket that she dropped when we first came here and never could find,” went on Mrs. Bunker.  “Laddie, you have found it.  You have discovered the golden treasure—­Rose’s locket!”

Having dug away the sand in which it was imbedded, Mrs. Bunker lifted up a dangling gold chain to which was fastened the gold locket.

“Oh, it is mine!” cried Rose.  “Oh, how glad I am to get it back again!  Oh, Laddie, how glad I am!”

Her mother handed the little girl her long-lost locket.  It was not a bit hurt from having been buried in the sand, for true gold does not tarnish in clean sand.  And the ornament was as good as ever.  Rose clasped it about her neck and looked very happy.

“How did it get in my hole?” asked Laddie.

“It didn’t,” said his mother.  “You happened to dig in just the place where Rose dropped her locket and you uncovered it.  Or this may not have been the exact place where it fell.  Perhaps the sands shifted and carried the locket with them.  That is why we could not find it before.  But now we have it back.”