“I—­I didn’t think the boat would float away,” Tom answered.  “I got in it and untied the rope.  Then, the first thing I knew I was away out here.  The wind blew me out, but it won’t blow me back.  I’ll soon be out in the middle, I guess!”

Though there had been enough wind to blow Tom, in the boat, away from shore, there was hardly any wind now, so the boy could not be blown back.  And how to get him to shore was something that Bunny and Sue could not tell how to do, especially as there were no oars in the boat.

“He can’t row without oars,” said Bunny.

“No, he can’t,” said Sue.  She knew enough about boats to tell that.  “And he hasn’t any sail,” she added.

“Haven’t you got a stick, so you can push yourself back to shore?” called Bunny.

“I have a little stick, but it won’t touch bottom,” Tom answered.  As he spoke he held up a short tree branch.  Bunny had used it the day before as a fishpole, and when through playing had tossed it into the boat.  Tom reached this stick over the side of the boat, and put it down into the water.  But the lake was too deep there to let him touch the bottom, and so push himself to shore.

“Can’t you swim out and get me, Bunny?” Tom cried.  He was not as old a boy as was Bunker Blue, and so he was quite easily frightened, especially as he could not swim, and knew hardly anything about boats.

“Swim out and get me, Bunny!” Tom begged.

Bunny Brown shook his head.

“I couldn’t swim that far,” he shouted.  “Besides, I’m not let go in the water unless my father or mother, or Uncle Tad or Bunker Blue is with me, and they’re not here now.”

“But how can I get back?” poor Tom wanted to know.

“We’ll get you, somehow!” cried Bunny.  “Won’t we, Sue?”

“Yes,” answered the little girl.  But neither she nor her brother knew how they were going to save Tom.

“Anyhow, if I could swim that far, and daddy would let me,” went on Bunny, speaking to his sister, “I couldn’t take the oars out, and if I didn’t have oars to row with, I couldn’t bring the boat back, or Tom either.”

“No, you couldn’t,” Sue said.  She knew enough about boats to tell that, for she could row a little, with a light pair of oars.

“Call your father or mother!” called Tom, who was now farther from shore than ever.  “Call them!  Maybe they can get another boat, and come after me.”

So Bunny and Sue called as loudly as they could, but neither Mr. Brown, his wife, Bunker nor Uncle Tad answered.  They had taken a walk back in the woods, when Tom started to wash the dishes, and when Bunny and Sue were playing house in the leafy bower, and they had gone farther than they intended.  So they could not hear Bunny and Sue calling.

“It’s no use,” said Bunny, after a bit.  “We’ve got to save him ourselves, Sue.  But I wonder how we can do it.”

Sue thought for a minute.  She did not rub her nose as Bunny had done.  She could think without doing that.  Then Sue said: