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 somersault followed, and then another faster one,—and then another—

"Chester, Chester," shouted the girls, "Stop, stop!" but they might just as well have shouted 'stop' to a rubber ball; for I was gathering momentum with every turn, and careening down that steep incline, all rolled up like a caterpillar, and enveloped in a cloud of sand and dust.

Exactly how many somersaults I turned, I'll never know; but it seemed as if the revolutions were at the rate of about five thousand to the second, and that I kept on going for a year or two.

When I reached the foot of the hill and a few rods more, I just unfolded and lay still. I didn't unfold myself, I just came unfolded, and I lay still because nothing else would, and I didn't seem to have energy enough to get up and try to stand on a beach that was walking off on its lower edge and swinging around to hit at me every once in a while.

The girls came chasing down the hill in reckless leaps, and by the time they reached me I had managed to sit up and was holding my head with both hands.

"Oh, Chester," cried Twinny, "what did you