they threw it out into the ocean. At first the bottle bobbed up and down
in the water. But soon a big wave caught it and carried it out of sight.

"Suppose," said Paul, "the bottle goes way out to sea and a big whale
swallows it. And suppose it makes the big whale so sick that he swims
near to the shore. Then some fishermen will catch him and kill him. When
they cut him open they will find the bottle, and when they read our
names they will know we are the boys who helped them get the great big
whale."

"Or," said Bob, "suppose the bottle goes out to sea and a man in a
seaplane sees it and opens it. And suppose he comes flying to Fairport
and when he lands here he asks where we are. Then when he finds us he
takes us for a long, long ride in his seaplane."

It was great fun supposing. The next morning Bob and Paul went to the
beach all ready to have some more supposes.

But what was that small thing lying on the sand? It looked very much
like a bottle. Yes, it was. It was _the_ bottle!

Bob picked it up and looked rather disappointed. Paul looked
disappointed too. "Our supposes are no good now," he said. "Oh yes,"
cried Bob, "I know a fine suppose. It's so good it's almost true. Let's
pretend a big wave was the parcel postman. When he saw the bottle away
out in the ocean with our names in it, he brought it straight to us."
"Why, of course," said Paul. "The parcel postman had to bring the bottle
to us. He couldn't take it to the whale or to the man with the seaplane.
It wasn't addressed to them."