"I'm going to call mamma!" exclaimed Vi, "Don't you go, Rose!"

   But Rose was already halfway to the shore of the lake. In another moment she called out:

   "Oh, I see it! I see it!"

   "What is it?" asked Mun, made brave by what he saw Rose doing, and he followed her. Vi and Margy trailed after them. "What is it?"

   "It's a big rat, that's all, but it isn't the kind of rats we saw the hired man catch in a trap at the barn. It's a nicer rat than that,

   and it's eating oysters on a rock near the shore."

   "Oh, is it

    really

   eating oysters?" asked Vi.

   "They look like oysters," replied Rose. "Oh, there he goes!" and, as she spoke, the animal, which did look like a rat, plunged into the water and swam away, only the tip of its nose showing.

   "Tisn't a bear," said Rose, "and 'tisn't an elephant."

   "Then what is it?" asked Vi.

   Rose did not know, but when the children went to the house and told Grandma Bell about it, she said:

   "Why, that was a big muskrat. They won't hurt you. There are many of them in the lake, and in the winter the men catch them for their skins to make fur-lined coats from. It was only a big muskrat you saw, Mun Bun."

   "And was he eating oysters?" asked Vi, who liked to know all about things.

   "They were fresh-water clams," said Grandma Bell. "There are many of them in the lake, too. The muskrats bring them up from the bottom in their paws, and take

   them out on a rock that sticks up from the water. There they eat the clams."

   "Well, I'm glad it wasn't a bear I saw," put in Mun Bun.

   "So am I," said Mother Bunker with a laugh. "But you needn't be afraid—there are no bears here."

   While this had been going on Laddie and Russ, with their father in the boat, had been having a good 

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