Sunday morning the girls slept late and almost missed breakfast; then after a short walk to the beach they slipped on fresh frocks and went with Mrs. Merrill to a quaint little church about a mile away. The walk there was charming, past the biggest hotel they had seen the night before, along the beach, through a wood and to the edge of a meadow where the little church, all vine-covered and rose-laden, came to view. After dinner at noon, the girls sat on the beach a long time, watching the tide and talking over the good times they had had and were going to have. They persuaded their mother that because the water was too cold for bathing that day, they ought to stay over till afternoon of Monday so that they might have a chance to bathe in the ocean. "We’ll do better than that," decided Mrs. Merrill, when she saw how the girls were enjoying the sea air and the quiet, "I’ll wire Hal and we’ll stay till afternoon Tuesday. That will give him time to finish his visit leisurely and we will still have all of Wednesday in Boston and you may go in bathing twice—if the water isn’t too terribly cold." "I’m a-going in to-morrow even if it’s freezing!" said Mary Jane. "So’m I," agreed Alice, "we’re not afraid of cold and it’s such fun to jump in those big waves!" But they little guessed what was really going to happen when they went in bathing in that heavy surf! The next morning, promptly at eleven, the whistle on the bathhouse blew 5-8. "Fifty-eight," said Mrs. Merrill thoughtfully, "that’s pretty cold, girlies." "Oh, we don’t mind," Alice assured her. "The sun’s good and hot and if the water seems cold we don’t need to stay in long—we can come out and sit in the hot sand." So they took their suits and walked down to the bathhouse. The tide was high that morning and the beach was narrow because the great waves washed up, higher and higher. Heavy posts driven into the bed of the ocean supported great ropes stretched where folks would want to stand in the waves, and if one watched and went out between waves and then held tightly to the rope while a wave broke over, there wasn’t a fraction as much real danger as there appeared to be from the noise and foam. Mrs. Merrill, grasping a hand of each girl, made a quick dash for the nearest rope and warned them to hold fast when the big wave came. Alice could manage herself very well, as she had a good strong grip and people were round about near to lend a hand if a wave should make her lose her footing for a second, but Mrs. Merrill held tightly to Mary Jane and together they jumped through the waves as the foamy crests of cold water broke just over them. "Burr, it _is_ cold, isn’t it!" said Mary Jane gayly as she shook the salt water out of her eyes.