"Dickie," said Susie presently, "we must start back before it gets any
darker. I think it's going to pour. If I put my arm round you, do you
think you can walk?"

"Why, the water would go over my head," said Dick.

He pushed out a fat leg and let it dangle against the rock; already the
white spray was splashing over it. Susie stared at it incredulously. When
the twins left, it had been a shallow pool, and they had waded through
it.

"Oh, hurry up, Dick!" she said, in a sudden panic. "Mother will be
frightened."

"It's fun, though," said Dick.

Fun! The word did not seem at all the right word to Susie, but she said
nothing. She knew now in a flash what the twins meant by the rising tide,
but all she saw was her mother's face with the fear on it.

But Susie had not been the eldest of the little family for so many
years for nothing. She knew that, whatever happened, Dick must not get
bronchitis, and she put her own fear bravely on one side to think of him.

First she slipped over the rock, and found that it reached her waist, and
that every wave made it more difficult to stand. With Dick on her back it
would be impossible; and the long links of the chain of rocks stretched
such a weary way with those shining pools between. The wind roared
against the island, and the spray dashed up it; but Susie remembered the