Junior was supposed to be in bathing. His mother, and his father, and his sister were in among the breakers having a fine time, but Junior, although he was wearing a bathing suit just like they were, preferred the good old sandy, sunny beach where foam-crested waves could not tumble you over and over, and fill your mouth with salt water when you yelled. He had tried bathing once, and no amount of coaxing could induce him to try it again, so his folks left him to play by himself while they took their dip. The first Junior knew about the Sand Witch was when the tip end of a steeple hat began to come up through the sand in front of him. Up, up it came until the whole hat was showing; then followed a long nose, two big, black eyes, a big mouth, and a sharp pointed chin; after that the rest of the Sand Witch followed very quickly, until at last she stood before him as cool as a cucumber. "Well," she said, not paying the slightest attention to the way Junior's hair was standing up, "here I am. I've heard you digging for some days. I suppose you thought you'd never find me." "Find you?" said Junior, staring with all his might. "I wasn't trying to find you. I never knew there was such a person. I wasn't trying to find anything." "You weren't?" said the Sand Witch. "Then what in the name of peace were you digging for?" "Why," said Junior, "I--I--I was just digging for fun." "Well," said the Witch, "did you find any fun?" "Find any fun? Of course not! You don't find fun, you--you just have it." The Sand Witch pushed her hat on one side and scratched her head in perplexity. "I don't think I understand. You said you were digging for fun, didn't you? And when I asked if you found any fun you say you don't find fun, you just have it. Well, if you have it, what do you dig for? Tell me that?" But though she waited very politely for Junior to tell her, he made no answer. He just looked at her with his mouth open, and wiggled his bare toes deeper into the sand. "My goodness," said the Witch, at last, "are you deaf? I asked you a question." "I--I know," said the boy, "but--but I can't tell you. I--I don't know how." "Suffering sea serpents!" exclaimed the newcomer. "You certainly are the queerest _I_ ever met!" "No queerer than you are," responded Junior, indignantly. "You're the queerest person _I_ ever met! Coming up through the sand in such a way!" "Humph!" retorted the Witch. "How else _could_ I come up? There's nothing else here but sand to _come_ up through. You can't blame that on me." "Oh, I'm not blaming you," said Junior. "I'm only telling you. I don't suppose it is your fault that all this sand is here. It only seemed so strange for a person to be underneath it. You don't live there, do you?" "I certainly do!" replied the other; "and all my family, too." "Underneath the sand? Why, I never heard of such a thing! I--I can't believe it!"