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"Let’s go to the beach
today," Ian said excitedly. "It’s been a long time since it’s been warm
enough and I need a little sun. How about it, Mac?"
Ian was right. Not too
often did it get warm enough in the highlands of Scotland to actually go
swimming at the beach. "All right. That’s a great idea. I think could do
with a little fun and sun," Mac agreed. "Do you know where our beach
towels are?"
Ian left and came back a
few minutes later with two towels. "Here’s yours," he said, handing Mac a
bright orange and yellow towel, "and here’s mine." He held up his bright
pink and vivid blue one.
With towels slung over
their shoulders, they walked through the tall grass towards the seashore.
It wasn’t a very sandy beach. There were more pebbles than sand, but if
they cleared them away, they could lie in it. Each of them found a spot
and spread out their towels. "I’ll beat you to the water," Ian called out,
running as fast as he could to the sea.
Mac looked at the waves.
They were not as big as usual. He jumped up and ran, following Ian, "I’m
right behind you." They played and splashed in the water, diving under,
looking for seashells and seaweed. After they were tired of the water they
shook themselves dry and lay down on their towels. Soon they were both
asleep, snoring loudly as the white clouds floated overhead.
"OUCH!" screamed Ian,
waking Mac from a sound sleep. Mac sat up. Ian was jumping around on his
towel. Mac looked in surprise, wondering why he was screaming. Then he saw
a crab. It was hanging on the end of Ian’s tail. "OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!" Ian
cried out. He started running around on the beach. Not only did the crab’s
sharp pincers hurt but also the pebbly beach was making his paws sore.
"Hold still," yelled Mac,
running towards him. "I’ll get it off." When Mac reached Ian he threw him
down on the pebbles and sat on top of his back. "Hold still." He reached
down and grabbed the crab by the back. He pulled and pulled and finally it
let go of Ian’s tail. Mac tossed it into the air. He didn’t realize that
he’d tossed it straight into the air and the crab came back down and
landed on Mac’s tail. "OUCH!" he screamed and started hopping about.
Ian stood up and looked at
Mac. He saw the crab. "OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!" Mac cried out. He started
running up and down the beach, running into the small waves, stepping on
seashell, dragging his tail through the water, and then he slipped on some
dark green, slimy seaweed. He fell right on his tummy. Ian ran over to
him. "Hold still, Mac. I’ll get the crab off." Ian grabbed hold of the
crab and pulled. It went flying off of Mac’s tail and landed in the water.
"We’d better be more
careful of crabs. That hurt!" Ian sighed.
Mac answered, "That more
than hurt. It was painful! But at least it’s gone now." Not wanting to
spoil the rest of the day, he said, "The sand is perfect for sandcastle
building. Are you ready?"
Ian, clutching his sore
tail, replied, "I’m ready. I want to build a huge sandcastle with towers
and a moat and a lot of windows."
They sat down and started
digging with their sharp raccoon claws. Soon they had a large mound of
sand. They formed walls and added towers, cut out windows, made doors and
dug a deep moat around it. "That’s beautiful," Mac said, gazing at the
magnificent sandcastle. "It looks almost real, doesn’t it, Ian?"
Ian was about to answer
when a wave of water lapped at the castle, filling the moat. "Look! The
moat is full." Ian was delighted.
What they didn’t realize
was that the tide was coming in. Soon the waves were washing parts of
their sandcastle away. "We should have built it further in," Mac said, too
late. They stood by and watched the towers falling into the water and
disintegrating into grains of sand. They weren’t paying attention to
anything else and didn’t notice the crab crawling out of the sea and
moving sideways, towards Ian’s tail.
"OUCH!" screamed Ian.
Mac looked at Ian’s tail.
Ian yelled "OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!" and ran down the beach.
Mac sighed, "Here we go
again!" and went off to help him. |
