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How would you like to go to the seaside for your holiday?” said Mummy, to Billy and Betty.

“Oh Mummy! Can we? Do, do let’s!” cried Billy.

“I shall go and find my spade and pail at once,” said Betty.

“And I shall look for my ship and my shrimping-net,” said Billy.

Mummy laughed at them. “What fun you will have!” she said: “Well, run along and find your things. We shall not start until Friday, but you may as well have everything ready.”

So the children found their spades and pails, their nets and ships. When Friday came they were most excited.

“We are going by motor-coach,” said Mummy. “There is one that goes all the way to the seaside. Come along now. Bring your things with you.”

They all went to the motor-coach. The man put the cases and bags at the back. Then Mummy, Billy and Betty climbed up to their seats. “Jump,” Billy’s puppy-dog came too.

“Jump has never seen the sea,” said Billy, hugging him: “He will be pleased to have so much water to play with, and so much sand to dig in. Won’t you, Jump?”

“Wuff!” said Jump.

“R-r-r-r-r-r-!” said the motor-coach and set off on its long journey.

It was a lovely ride—and at the end of it was the big blue sea!

“Oh look, look!” cried Billy and Betty in delight: “The big shining blue sea!”

“Oh Mummy, let’s go and paddle now!”

But they had to go to their house and take all their things there first. Then it was dinner time so they had dinner.

After dinner they took their spades and pails and ran down to the beach. It was a lovely big beach made of golden sand. Here and there were big brown rocks covered with seaweed.

“Look at the big sea!” cried Billy. “Jump, look at it, do you like it puppy-dog?”

“Wuff!” said Jump, not very sure that he did: “It is a very big pond,” he thought, “I can’t see the other side.”

“Let’s go and paddle!” said Billy and he took Betty’s hand. They ran to the edge of the sea, where the little waves were running up and down. The water felt cold to their bare feet.

“It’s lovely, it’s lovely, it’s lovely!” shouted Betty: “I’m paddling! I’m splashing in the sea. Come and paddle, Jump, quick!”

Jump soon liked the water and he paddled too. Then the three of them had a lovely time.

Soon Mummy came down to the sands as well. She sat down with her knitting. The children ran up to her.

“Mummy! Shall we build you a most enormous castle? You can watch it getting bigger and bigger.”

“Yes, do,” said Mummy.

So the two children got their spades and set to work. You should have seen how hard they dug in the sand!

“The Castle is big!” cried Betty, when it was as high as her waist.

“It is very big!” shouted Billy when it was as high as his shoulder.

“It is simply enormous!” cried Betty, when it was taller than she was.

“Wuff!” said Jump, who had been digging very hard with his paws because he had no spade.

“Now make some steps up to your castle,” said Mummy, “And decorate it with seaweed. Here is a flag to put on top.”

Soon the castle looked very grand indeed. The flag waved in the wind.

“The tide is coming in,” said Billy: “Let’s sit on the castle and let the water go all round us.”

Mummy had to move back when the tide came in. She went right back to the sea-wall and sat there. The two children and Jump sat on top of the castle.

“We’re King and Queen of the castle!” they sang.

The tide came up and the waves ran right round the castle. It really was most exciting.

Jump barked loudly at the sea. “Wuff, wuff! go away!”

Soon the sea was all round the castle, and it began to crumble away.

Then the children had to wade back to the shore.

“We have had such fun,” they said: “Is it tea-time yet, Mummy?”

It was. So they had a picnic on the sands, and then they played again till it was time to go home.

It was lovely to wake up the next morning and remember that they were at the seaside! They jumped out of bed very quickly.

The sun was shining brightly. “Today we will all bathe,” said Mummy: “And you shall both learn to swim.”

So they all put on bathing-suits with jerseys on top, and Mummy wore a beach-coat, then down they went to bathe.

“Come along,” said Mummy to Betty, who said the water was cold. “Look at Billy—he’s up to his waist already!” said Mummy, “He is a brave boy!”

Then Betty went in up to her waist too—and Jump splashed beside her.

“Jump can swim, and he’s never been taught!” said Billy, proudly: “I wish I could swim as well as my puppy-dog can!”

“You will soon be able to,” said Mummy, “Look, this is how you use your arms. Do it like me.”

“I shall swim before we go back home,” said Betty, trying very hard.

“We’ll bathe every day, sometimes twice a day,” said Mummy: “Now let’s go and lie in the waves at the edge of the sea, and watch all the other bathers.”

So they did, and it was lovely to feel the little waves splashing right over them.

“Look at that man, diving into the very middle of the big waves just before they break,” said Betty: “I wish I could do that.”

There were lots of people bathing. Some of the children could swim very well. Billy and Betty made up their minds to swim well too.

Another day the children went out in a boat. The old boatman rowed it. Jump stood up at one end of the boat, watching the waves.

“Don’t jump in, now,” said Billy: “It would be a long way to swim to shore, Jump!”

“Would you children like to row?” asked the old boatman, “Well, take an oar and sit beside me. That’s right. You can each have a turn. Now then—forward—back—forward—back. Fine!”

“We shall learn to row as well as to swim!” said Billy, feeling pleased: “It’s lovely to float over the sea like this. Your turn now Betty.”

Betty had a turn at rowing too. Jump wanted a turn but he didn’t get one. So he went and stood at the end of the boat again, barking at the fish he saw.

“Now home we go again,” said the old boatman: “You learn to row, and maybe I will let you have my very small boat just for yourselves, to row about in the shallow water!”

“Where are your fishing-nets?” said Mummy, the next day. “If you can catch some shrimps, we will have them cooked for tea.”

So Billy and Betty took their nets and went to the edge of the sea. The tide was so far out that it was quite a walk to get to the water.

There were lots of people shrimping. There were men there with very big nets indeed. They caught a great many at a time.

Billy and Betty began to push their nets in front of them hoping to get some shrimps too. Betty held hers up after a bit—and she gave a shout of joy.

“I’ve got three shrimps! One big one and two little ones.” Then Billy looked and he had caught some too. The children put them into their bags.

They caught a lovely lot—and what a fine tea they had! Mummy cooked the shrimps for them, and they all turned pink. Billy and Betty and Jump did enjoy them with bread-and-butter.

“We haven’t sailed our ships yet,” said Billy to Betty one day! “The sea is nice and calm this morning. Shall we take our ships down to the beach?”

“Oh yes, let’s,” said Betty. So they took their lovely white-sailed ships down, and went to sail them in the rock-pools.

They sailed very well, and they did not fall over on their sides once. Other children came to watch and Billy and Betty were very proud.

“Shall we go and sail them on the big sea?” said Billy. “The ships can’t go very far in these pools without bumping into rocks.”

“Oh yes—it would be fun to see the ships sailing on the big sea,” said Betty. “We can hold their strings tightly so that they don’t blow away.”

So Billy and Betty and Jump went to the big sea to sail their ships there. They set them down on the water and the wind blew their sails and sent them along quickly.

And then suddenly Betty let go her string. She made a grab at it, but the wind took the ship away so quickly that the string was out of reach at once.

“Oh! Oh! My ship is sailing right away!” cried Betty, and tears ran down her cheeks: “It has gone into deep water. Oh, save my ship, somebody!”

But there was nobody to save it because all the grown-ups were far away at the back of the beach. Billy was very sorry for Betty.

Then Jump did a fine thing. He splashed into the sea after the ship! He began to swim as fast as he could. He reached the ship! He took it into his mouth, turned round and began to swim back with it!

“Good dog, oh good dog!” cried everyone. Jump splashed out of the water and laid the ship at Betty’s feet. She gave him a hug though he was very wet.

“You’re the best dog in the world!” she said.

One morning Mummy went to sleep on the beach. “Let’s cover her with sand!” said Billy, with a laugh.

So the two children began to put sand on top of Mummy. She didn’t wake up. Soon she was nothing but a big mound of sand, with two feet sticking out at the end, and a head at the top!

When a man came by selling cold drinks, Mummy woke up. She tried to sit up to get her purse—but she was covered in sand!

“Dear me!” said Mummy, only half awake, “What a heavy blanket I have got over me today! I can’t get it off!”

Then she saw that it was sand and she did laugh.

The children sometimes tried to bury Jump in the sand, but he would never let them. He just jumped off, and shook it all away at once.

“Wuff!” he said: “I won’t be buried, I won’t, I won’t!”

Another day the children went for a sail in a great big steamer. It took them right out to sea.

The white gulls flew round the steamer, and people threw them bread. They skimmed down to the water’s edge and picked it up. It was fun to watch them.

The steamer met other steamers and when it did, it sounded its hooter. The others answered.

“That’s how steamers talk to one another, Jump,” said Billy.

The captain showed the children how he steered the ship with his big wheel. It was very exciting.

“You can have a try,” he said to Billy. So, for just a minute Billy steered the big steamer—but he felt rather worried in case he should put the steamer on a rock and wreck it!

The children found all kinds of exciting things on the sand and in the rock-pools. They found long strands of seaweed that looked like sea-ribbon.

They found beautiful shells of all kinds. Some of them shone like pearls.

“I shall take some home with me,” said Betty: “Then I can play with them in the winter.”

“Today I found a star-fish,” said Billy. “It had five fingers, and I saw such a lot of crabs, Betty. One of them pinched Jump’s toe.”

“That must have been funny,” said Betty. “I suppose he trod on it and it pinched him with its little pincers!”

“There are jelly-fish in this pool,” said Billy, and he pointed to where there were big umbrella-shaped creatures floating here and there, and just like jelly.

“What a lot of lovely things there are to see and to do at the seaside,” said Betty.

The children were sad when they had to go home. They went down on to the beach for the last time.

“Goodbye!” said Betty as she waved to the big white gulls.

“Goodbye, rock-pools and waves and sands,” said Billy.

“I’ve got some shells,” said Betty.

“And I’ve got some long bits of seaweed,” said Billy: “We can hang a bit up outside our bedroom window, and then it will tell us if the weather will be wet or dry.”

“Wuff!” said Jump to the sea. That was his way of saying goodbye.

“We’ll come again another day,” said Betty. “Goodbye! Goodbye!”

[The end of Billy and Betty at the Seaside by Enid Blyton]