NE hot summer day, Filament and his friends were sitting around trying to keep cool when someone suggested that a trip to the beach would be a great way to cool off. Now, you have to understand that Filament, like a lot of stuffed bears, doesn't like anything at all to do with water and especially doesn't want to get wet! So, it's a little hard to understand just why Filament and his friends — all of whom are stuffed! — would want to go anywhere near water, especially a large body of water near a beach.

     But, in spite of all this mass hydrophobia hiding deep within their stuffed minds, they somehow managed to convince their mom to pack all of them up into a large L.L. Bean canvass bag (which usually brought forth great protests — especially from Filament — because they hated being transported in bags or baskets) and carried them off to her favorite beach.

     Soon they arrived at their mom's favorite beach — Back Beach. A quiet, pebbly, stoney expanse where she loved to search for pretty stones and other things to put in her collection bucket.

     The whole gang was set out on some nice flat stones: Filament in his beach chair, Fiona sat next to him on the bear blanket. Flagyl reclined on a nicely shaped rock; Frowg and Flibbert perched on a higher, bigger stone for a better view; and Felix just grumbled quietly and wished he was back in the L.L. Bean bag.

     "There, isn't this cooler and more refreshing" Flagyl said as he took in a deep breath of cool, salt air.

     "Oh my yes," Fiona answered, "this is so much better that being cooped up back at the campground."

     "Oh my gosh!" Filament suddenly exclaimed. "There's miles and miles of water in front of us! That's worse than crossing a bridge or going on a boat!"

     "What if the water suddenly rose and we all were washed away!" Flagyl cried out tearfully.

     Just then, their mom came up to them with her bucket full of stones, shells and pieces of drift wood. "What's the matter here, I thought you all wanted to come to the beach to cool off."

     "Well, we did" said Filament, "but we didn't think there would be so much water so close to us!"

     "The water won't hurt you" their mom reassured them, "just sit there in the breeze, watch the boats and the sea gulls while I look around some more."

     Off she went, leaving Filament and the others muttering to themselves.

     Soon a sea gull swooped down to inspect the group. "Don't anyone move" Filament whispered as the gull walked around, turning its head — first one way and then the other — as it considered them for lunch. Satisfied that there was nothing tasty there, the gull soon flew off, brushing Filament's nose with its wing-tip"

     "Ouch!" Filament hollered out.

     "Oh, Filament, you saved us all!" Fiona said. "That big beast would have eaten us for sure, but you scared it away."

     Mom came back up the beach, laughing at them and teased Filament about the gull. "Everyone back into the bag, it's time to go home."

     This time they were happy to get into the bag where it was safe.

     Once they were home, Filament said that he'd rather be a little warm than sit on that scary beach with the gulls and water all around.

     Everyone agreed — except Felix, who had slept through the whole afternoon.