Then a question of equity arose. The twins thought it fair that all they both secured should be theirs; by which arrangement Perce could have expected to get no more than half as much for his share. “But why not divide the floodwood the same as we do the seaweed?” he demanded—“Half and half.” “Because your oxen——” began Moke. “Don’t help,” added Poke. “But they’re here on your account as much as they are on mine,” said Perce. “They’re giving their valuable time all the same, whether they help or not.” “All right! what do you propose?” cried the twins. “That we divide equally everything we find on the beach—driftwood, seaweed, no matter what,” Perce replied. “Half for you two, and half for me and the oxen.” The twins agreed good-naturedly, and all set merrily to work. After gathering driftwood for a while, they dug out a place in the hot coals, into which they put their potatoes, wrapped in green sea-moss, and left them to cook. Then the corn was made ready and roasted on the ends of the sticks that had served the same purpose the night before, and at last came breakfast—which they ate with such appetites as I fear some boys who read this know nothing about. “Won’t Olly be mad when he knows what he has missed?” cried Perce. They all had to speak loud, to be heard above the sound of the surf. “If he comes back by the coast——” said Moke. “We shall see him,” said Poke. “I should think it was time.” “It’s time to begin on the kelp!” Perce exclaimed, throwing away his last corn-cob, and springing up from his seat on the sand. The ox-cart was brought around, and halted alongside the heaps of still dripping and glistening seaweed. The larger part of this was kelp, and the most valuable part in the estimation of farmers who make use of these products of the sea to enrich the land. The kelp grows upon deep-sunken ledges, from which it is detached only by the agitations of great storms,—a weird sort of plant, which in still weather may sometimes be seen, far down, waving mysteriously, with every fluctuation of the tide, in the silent ocean depths. It is often of gigantic proportions, its slippery stems and great, glossy leaves measuring many yards in length. It frequently comes up with clusters of blue mussels and other shells clinging to its roots. With the kelp, were mixed a tangled rockweed, eel-grass, and Irish moss; all of which the boys pitched on the cart together; Perce starting up the oxen now and then and stopping them again where the litter was thickest. “How’s this for a devil’s apron?” cried Poke, struggling with an immense leaf of kelp, to which he merely gave the picturesque, popular name; for the twins were well-brought-up boys, who would not for anything have uttered a profane word. It flopped salt water in his face as he was getting it on the cart; and then, as the oxen started forward, trailed its smooth, wet, snaky stem along the ground. [Illustration: PERCE FINDS THE WATCH. (SEE NEXT PAGE.)]