"It's not true!" snapped Allison.

    "I saw a hundred pelicans," said Dori to her older sister.

   "You probably saw ten," said Allison. "You're telling a doozie again."

   "A hundred sounds more interesting," said Dori.

   "You didn't see a giant iguana this morning either," stated Allison.

   "It was huge!" exclaimed Dori.

   "If iguanas were that big, I wouldn't leave the hotel," said Allison.

   "Then you would've missed swimming in those thirty foot waves today," said Dori.

    "They weren't quite that high," said Mom.

   "The truth is too boring," said Dori.

   "Maybe, but it is the right thing to say. You don't have to think about it. You just do it," said Mom. "Dori, turn in our towels. Be back at the room in ten minutes."

   Dori piled towels over her shoulder. She shuffled to the pool desk and added her bundle to the growing pile of used beach towels. Suddenly she noticed a crab struggling in the chlorinated pool! Dori stared at the crab frantically trying to climb the slick, pool tile.

   "It's up to me to get you out of that poisonous bath! What can I do? I need a plan, fast!"

   Dori put her hands to her head to think. Her fingertips touched her baseball cap. "That's it!" she exclaimed. Dora held her hat by the bill, and scooped up the crab. It lay frozen in Dori's hat.

   "What should I do? I wish you could talk to me." Dori heard the nearby waves. "Of course, I need to get you back to the ocean!"

   She carefully carried the crab to the water's edge. Dori gently put it on the wet beach. It lay like a picture. Dori filled her cupped hands with sea water and poured it over the crab. The crab jerked, and was still.

   Dori's chest fell tight. "Maybe I wasn't fast enough to save you, little crab," she said. Then Dori saw a boy coming toward her lugging a plastic bucket.

   He asked, "Did you catch that crab?"

   "It fell in the pool," Dori said. Dori looked inside the water filled bucket at a smaller crab crawling around the bottom. "Can I put this crab in your bucket?"

   The boy nodded.

   Her crab drifted slowly down through the water. At once, it wiggled two legs. Then it moved all eight legs and both claws!

   "Whoopee!" Dori yelled.

   They watched the crabs paddle around the bucket.

   Finally Dori said, "It's time to let them go."

   "Do we have to?" he asked.

   "It's the right thing to do," said Dori. "It's like telling the truth. You don't have to think about it. You just do it."

   The boy nodded. Dori slowly tipped the bucket. The crabs spilled out and scurried across the wet sand.

   "They look happy," he said.

   "Thanks for sharing your bucket," said Dori.

   "Good-bye,"

   She galloped toward the hotel feeling as light as a pelican feather.

   "Mom and Allison are going to love this story," said Dori.

   "It's a doozie, and it's all true!"