"Why do you say 'this time'?" asked Daddy Bunker. "Did you ever pull in this box before?"

"Indeed I did, or, rather, one of us did. This is the same box the children found once before; don't you remember? This time we'll find out what is in this box for sure. And we won't wait for a hammer, either.

I'll use a piece of driftwood."

As Daddy Bunker and the two boys gathered around the box they saw that indeed it was the same one that had been cast up before by the waves.

What could be in it?

CHAPTER XXII

THE UPSET BOAT

Cousin Tom had said he was not going to wait for a hammer to open the box, and he was as good as his word. When he had carried the box well up on the beach, out of reach of even the highest waves, he looked about for a piece of driftwood that he could use in knocking the cover off the case. And while he was thus searching, Daddy Bunker, Russ and Laddie examined the box.

"It looks just like the same one," said Russ.

"I'm positive it is," added his father. "I remember the size and shape of the other box and this is just the same. And there were two funny marks in the wood on top, and this has the same marks."

"There was a piece of paper tacked on the other box," said Russ. "That isn't here now."

"That was soaked off in the water and washed away," said his father.

"But you can still see the four tacks, one for each corner of the card.

I suppose that had some address on but it was washed off by the salt water."

"What made the box come back to us?" asked Laddie, as Cousin Tom came walking along with a heavy stick he was going to use as a hammer to open the case.

"Well, no one knows what the sea is going to do," replied Daddy Bunker.

"It washes up queer things and takes them away again. I suppose this has been floating around for some time--ever since it was washed away from us the time we thought we so surely had it."

"It may have been washed up on the beach in some lonely spot a little while after we last saw it," said Cousin Tom. "And it may have been there ever since until the last high tide, when it was washed away again and then I happened to spy it just now. But it will not get away again until we open it."

Using the piece of heavy driftwood he had picked up as a hammer, Cousin Tom soon broke the top of the box that had drifted ash.o.r.e. He pulled back the splintered pieces and eagerly they all looked inside. The box was about two feet long and the same in height and width, and all Laddie and Russ could see at first was what seemed to be some heavy paper.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COUSIN TOM BROKE OPEN THE BOX WITH A PIECE OF DRIFTWOOD _Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Tom's._--_Page 210_]

"Is that all that's in it?" cried Russ.

"Wait and see," advised his father. "There may be something under the paper."

Cousin Tom put his hand in and raised the covering. Some bright colors were seen and then what appeared to be a lot of pieces of cloth.

"A lot of dresses!" exclaimed Russ in disappointed tones. "That's all!"

"But here is something inside the dresses," said his father with a smile.

"Something in the dresses?"

"Yes. Unless I am very much mistaken there are j.a.panese dolls in this box--maybe half a dozen of them--and it is their gaily colored dresses which you see. Isn't that it, Cousin Tom?"

"You are right, Daddy Bunker! There they are! j.a.panese dolls!" and Cousin Tom pulled out one about two feet long and held it up in front of the two boys.

"Dolls!" gasped Laddie.

"j.a.panese dolls!" added his brother.

"A little spoiled by the salt water, but still pretty good," said Cousin Tom, as he pulled another doll out of the box. "They were wrapped in oiled silk and the box is lined with a sort of water-proof cloth, so they didn't get as wet as they might otherwise. Some of the dresses are a bit stained, and I see that the black-haired wig of one of the dolls has melted off. But we can glue that on again. Well, that's quite a find--six nice, large j.a.panese dolls," laughed Cousin Tom.

"They aren't any good for us!" exclaimed Russ. "I was thinking maybe there'd be a toy steam engine in the box."

"If there had been it would have been spoiled by the sea water," said Cousin Tom with a smile. "Dolls are about the best thing that could be in the box. They are light and wouldn't sink. And, being so well wrapped up, they didn't get very wet. We can take them home to Rose and Mun Bun and Margy and----"

"Oh, there'll be one for Violet!" cried Russ. "Now I can give her back a doll for the one that sunk when my boat upset! Save the nicest doll for Violet!"

"Yes, I think that would be no more than fair," said Daddy Bunker. "The sea took Violet's doll and the sea gives her back another. How many dolls did you say there were, Cousin Tom?"

"Six. One for each of the six little Bunkers."

"Pooh! I don't want a doll!" exclaimed Russ. "I'm too big!"

"So'm I!" added Laddie.

"Very well. And as there are six dolls and only four who will want them, that will leave two over, so if Rose or Violet or Mun Bun loses a doll we'll have two extra ones. Only I hope they won't lose anything more while we're here," and Daddy Bunker smiled.

"Where do you suppose the dolls came from?" asked Russ as Cousin Tom packed them back in the box so the case could be carried to the bungalow.

"It's hard to say," was the answer. "As the tag on the box has been washed off we don't know to whom the dolls belonged. They may have gotten in a load of refuse from New York by mistake, from one of the big stores, and been dumped into the sea, or they may have been lost off some vessel in a storm. Or there may even have been a wreck.

"Anyhow the box of dolls, well wrapped up from the water, has been floating around for some time, I should say. It came to us once but we lost it. Then we had another chance at it and we didn't lose it. Now we'll take the dolls home and see what Rose, Violet and the others have to say about them."

It was a jolly home-going, even though no fish had been caught. Long before they were at the bungalow but within sight of it Laddie and Russ cried:

"Look what we got!"

"We found the box again!"

Rose, Violet, Margy and Mun Bun came running out to see what it all meant.

"Did you find my gold locket?" asked Rose eagerly.

"No, my dear, we didn't find that," her father answered.

"Did you get my doll back from the bottom of the ocean?" Violet called.

"Well, we pretty nearly did," answered Russ. "Anyhow, we got you one I guess maybe you'll like as well."