And how Prince tore up and down the beach! He found other monsters than those the little girls came across--horseshoe crabs for one thing, which Carolyn had no idea were good to eat until Molly I. rescued several live ones from the surf and they ate them, prepared deliciously, for supper. No ordinary softshell crab is the equal of these monsters. Then Carolyn and Edna had an awful fright. Prince saw something in the surf and went in after it. "Oh, see that thing!" cried Edna. "It's got a round, shiny head." "Why," responded Carolyn, "it must be a rubber ball." But when Prince tried to seize it, they saw a short arm thrown into the air as though the Thing were mutely pleading for rescue. "Oh!" shrieked Edna. "It's a baby!" "Come back here, Prince!" commanded Carolyn, fully as horrified as her friend. "A drowned baby!" moaned Edna, covering her eyes. "Maybe it isn't drowned," gasped Carolyn. "Prince!" Prince returned to the shore. The Thing whirled around and around in a miniature whirlpool; then another incoming breaker rolled the Thing almost to the little girls' feet. Prince barked at it wildly. "Sh! Hush, Princey!" begged his little mistress. "If it's _dead_--But, then, maybe it isn't dead." "Oh, it must be," wailed Edna. "Maybe not. There are Water Babies, you know. Papa read about them out of a book to me. And a little chimney-sweep, who wanted to be clean, was washed all nice and made round and rosy and just like a land baby, because he'd never had a chance before to get a bath." Edna listened to this with both ears; but she looked at the Thing in the surf with both eyes. "It is black," she said. "Maybe it is another chimney-sweep trying to get clean. But--but, it looks _awful_ dead!" The Thing retreated with the receding surf to meet another incoming wave. The pebbles scratched and squeaked as they rolled down the strand, as if it might have been the voice of the Thing crying for help. "Oh, it can't be that it is alive!" whispered Edna. "But see! See its arm waving!" The Thing rolled over again and again. The incoming wave caught it and lifted it high upon its front. The little girls saw almost all of the Thing for a moment. "Oh!" shrieked Edna. "It's got a tail!" "It's a baby mermaid," murmured Carolyn May, all but stricken dumb by this discovery. "Do you believe so?" demanded her friend. "And is it alive?" "It can't be," said Carolyn. "Else it would be swimming. And it wouldn't let us see him. You know, my papa says it is almost as hard to see mermaids as it is to see sea serpents--and the sea serpents only come around when it is a very dull season at the seaside resorts. I am sure _this_ is a good season at Block Island. See how many people there are here." "The poor baby!" crooned Edna. "The poor mermaid baby! Isn't it awful?"