Ed was running the water out of his shoes. They were thoroughly soaked, and the salt effect was too well known to be speculated upon. Jack stood on his head in the deep sand--he was exulting over Ed's "downfall." "Wait! Wait!" prophesied the unfortunate one. "You are not back home yet." "Oh, there's the bungalow!" suddenly called out Bess, who was some paces in advance. "How I wish we girls could camp!" "Aren't you?" asked Walter. "What do you call that place where the notes grow on the gas jets?" "Why, that's a regular up-to-date cottage, including----" "Mother and chaperone," added Belle. "I cannot see why the most needful adjunct does not arrive in the person of Nettie, our star maid. I had to dry dishes this morning," and she looked gloomily at her white hands. "That's what is called camping," advised Jack. "I am going to do the supper dishes, Ed will do the dinner dishes, his hands are nice and soft for grease, and Walter will 'tend to the tea--things. Don't forget, Wallie, the tea things for yours!" "It usually rains at night," Walter remarked. "I don't mind putting the things in a dishpan outside." "And have them dried in the sunny dew! Oh, back to nature! You wonderful back-to-nature faker!" cried Ed. "Nature must have an awful 'back-ache,'" finished Jack. "I would hate to have her job these days." "Here we are!" announced Ed, as they reached the cabin on the beach. "Isn't this the real thing?" "Oh, what a fine bungalow!" exclaimed Cora. "Isn't it splendid!" added Belle. "My, but it is----" "Sweet and low!" Jack interrupted Bess. "I like that tune for a bungalow!" They were following Jack, who had the big, old-fashioned key, for the lock had been constructed to add to the novelty of the hut. It took some time to open the low door, but it did finally yield to the pressure of the three strong young men. "Enter!" called Jack, bowing low to the girls, "Pray enter, pretty maidens. Are there any more at home like you?" "There are a few, and pretty, too," responded Cora, taking up the strain of the familiar song. Then such antics! And such discoveries! What is more resourceful than a strange house filled with strange things, strange corners and strange--spider webs! "Don't open the trunk!" shrieked Belle. "There may be a----" "Note in it!" finished Walter. "Now, nixy on notes. I want the goods or nothing, in our house." Boxes were being pulled from their salty corners, hammocks were dragged out, lanterns were being "swung," and altogether it seemed merely a question of who could upset the place most thoroughly. "Halt! Avaunt! Ship ahoy!" yelled Jack. "If you breaks the stuff you pays fer it. This stock is inventoried." But the girls ran from one thing to another, regardless of dust or dampness. "Oh, just look at the funny kettle!" exclaimed Belle. "I'm sure that is for an outdoor fire." "Certainly it is," replied Ed, just as if he knew what he was talking about. "That also has to rest on Nature's back."