One morning in Maine, Sal woke up. She peeked over the top of the covers. The bright sunlight made her blink, so she pulled the covers up and was just about to go back to sleep when she remembered “today is the day I am going to Buck’s Harbor with my father!” Sal push back the covers, hopped out of bed, put on her robe and slippers, and hurried out into the hall. There was little Jane, just coming out of her room. Sister Jane had wiggled out of her nightie, so Sal helped her put on her robe and slippers. “You don’t want to catch cold and have to stay in bed, Jane, because this morning we are going to Buck’s Harbor,” Sal reminded her sister. Together they went into the bathroom to get ready for breakfast. Sal squeezed out toothpaste on sister Jane’s brush and said, “Be careful, Jane, and don’t get it in your hair.” Then she squeezed some toothpaste on her own brush and when she started to brush her teeth something felt very strange! One of her teeth felt loose! She wiggled it with her tongue, then she wiggled it with her finger.
“Oh, dear!” thought Sal. “This cannot be true!” Standing on the stool, she looked in the mirror and wiggled her tooth again. Sure enough, it was loose! You could even see it wiggle. “Ma-a-a-ma!” she cried. “One of my teeth is loose! It will hurt and I’ll have to stay in bed! I won’ be able to eat my breakfast and go with Daddy to Buck’s Harbor!” She came running down the stairs and into the kitchen. “Why, Sal,” said her mother, “that’s nothing to worry about. That means that today you’ve become a big girl. Everybody’s baby teeth get loose and come out when they grow up. A nice new bigger and better tooth will grow in when this one comes out.” “Did your baby teeth get loose and come out when you grew to be a big girl?” Sal asked her mother. “Yes,” she answered. And the these nice large ones grew in. When Penny grew to be a big dog, his puppy teeth dropped out too.” “And will Jane’s get loose too?”asked Sal.
“Yes,” said her mother. “But not for a long time, not until she stops being a baby and grows up to be a big girl like you. Jane is so young that she hasn’t even grown all her baby teeth yet. Now let’s all go upstairs and brush our hair and get dressed for breakfast.” “It feels so different to be a big girl and have a loose tooth,” sail Sal, “especially when you are chewing. When is it going to come out?” “I know what I’m going to wish for!” said Sal. “A nice cold choco-“ “But you mustn’t tell anybody your wish, or it won’t come true,” cautioned her mother. “It’s supposed to be a secret wish. Now finish you milk, Sal; then you can go out on the beach and help you father dig clams for lunch.” “I’m a big girl, and I can help him dig a lot of clams, fast,” said Sal, “so we can hurry up and go to Buck’s Harbor.” After breakfast, when Sal went out to help her father, she saw a fish hawk flying overhead, carrying a fish.
The seal disappeared beneath the water and the loon laughed, “Luh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hooh!” Sal wasn’t hurt a bit, so she laughed too, then she got up carefully and started on down the shore to help her father dig clams. She paused to watch some sea gulls having breakfast. They were dropping mussels down on a rock to crack the mussel shells, just like nuts. Then they flew down to eat the insides. “Do sea gulls have teeth?” wondered Sal as she wiggled her own loose one with her tongue. She thought of her secret wish and smiled, then hurried down the beach to where she could see her father. “Daddy! I have a loose tooth!” she shouted. “And when it drops out I’m going to put it under my pillow and wish a wish. You can even see it wiggle!” Her father stopped digging clams to watch while Sal wiggled her tooth for him. “You’re growing into a big girl when you get a loose tooth!”he saild.” What are you going to whish fro when it drops out?”
“I can’t tell you that,” said Sal solemnly, “because it’s supposed to be a secret wish.” “Oh, yes, so it is,” her father agreed. “May I help you dig clams?” Sal aked. “I’m almost finished,” he replied, “but you can help if you like, First, you must take off your shoes and socks, and roll up your pants too, so that they won’t get all wet and muddy.” Sal took off her shoes and socks and put them on a dry rock She rolled up her pants and waded into the muddy gravel to help her father. He dug in the mud with his clam rake, and then they looked carefully and felt around in the muddy hole for clams. “I found a tiny baby one!”said Sal. “You certainly did,” said her father. “But it’s too small. We just keep the large ones, like this. Let’s put the baby clam back in the mud so he can grow to be a big clam come day.” “He is such a baby clam, and I guess he is too small,” she agreed. "I guess he isn’t even big enough to have all his baby teeth,” said Sal, placing the tiny clam tenderly back in the mud. “Clams don’t have teeth,” grunted her father, digging another rakeful of mud. “Not even big clams have teeth?”asked Sal. “Not even big clams,” her father assured her. “Do baby fish hawks and big fish hawks have teeth?”asked Sal. “No,” said her father. “Do loons have teeth?” she asked, “and gulls?” “No.” “Do seals have teeth?”
“Yes, they have’em,” he answered. “And do their teeth get loose like this?” asked Sal, opening her mouth to show her loose tooth. “O-owh!” she said with great surprise. She felt with her tongue, and she felt with her muddy fingers. “Why it’s goen!” she said sadly, feeling once more just to make sure. The loose tooth was really and truly gone. The salty mud from her fingers tasted bitter, and she made a bitter-tasting face that was almost a face like crying. “Did you swallow it, Sal?” her father asked with a concerned smile. “No.” She shook her head sadly. “I was too busy asking to do any swallowing. It just dropped itself out. It’s gone, and I can’t put it under my pillow and make my wish come true!” “That’s too bad,” her father sympathized. “But you are growing into a big girl, and big girls don’t cry about a little thing like that. They wait for another tooth to come loose and make a wish on that one.”
“Maybe we can find my tooth where it dropped,” said Sal, hopefully feeling around in the muddy gravel where the clams live. “Sal’s father helped her look, but a muddy tooth looks so much like a muddy pebble, and muddy pebble looks so much like a muddy tooth, that they hunted and hunted without find it. “We’ll have to stop looking and take our clams back to the house, Sal,” her father said at last, “or we won’t have time for the trip to village,” He washed off the clams in the clean salt water of the bay, and Sal reluctantly stopped looking and waded in to washed off the clams in the clean salt water of the bay, and Sal reluctantly stopped looking and waded in to wash the mud from her feet and hands. “I guess some clam will find my tooth and get what I wished for,” said Sal. “If we come back here tomorrow and find a clam eating a chocolate ice-cream cone, why , we’ll have to take it away from him and make him give my tooth back too,” she said. While Sal put on her socks and shoes her father packed seaweed around the clams to keep them moist and fresh. “Now, let’s hurry back to the house,” he said, “and in a few minutes we’ll be on our way to Buck’s Harbor in the boat to get milk and groceries.” “Okay,” Sal answered, scrambling to her feet.