bunny brown and his sister sue were not afraid of being on the water in a boat. they knew how to swim, and they had paddled and rowed around sandport bay often enough to know how to handle a small boat.
but it was different—this being out in a boat with no oars. bunny or sue would never have done that of their own accord, for they knew how easy it was to drift away. and, if they had known the boat was not well fastened, they would have seen to that before they got in, for their father had taught them how properly to tie a knot that would not slip, one that would hold a boat securely and yet one which was easy to loosen.
the boat that bunny and sue had gotten in did not belong to their father, but to another[155] fisherman, though the children knew he would not mind their playing in his craft.
“but we didn’t know the boat would come loose!” said sue, as they drifted out farther and farther.
“no,” agreed bunny. “somebody was careless.”
he had often heard his father say that when some other fisherman’s boats became loose and drifted away.
“what are we going to do, bunny?” asked his sister, and it sounded as if the little girl might cry, as indeed she was almost ready to do.
“i’ll see if i can’t paddle back to shore with my hands,” said bunny, and he leaned over the side of the boat.
“don’t fall in!” warned sue, as her mother might have done.
“i won’t,” said bunny. but he soon found it was not very easy to paddle with his hands. the wind blew him, his sister, and patter farther out from shore all the while, and by this time the brown boat and fish dock was some distance down the bay.
[156]“we’d better call,” suggested sue. “then maybe bunker will come and get us, or maybe daddy will.”
“all right—let’s call,” agreed bunny.
they shouted as loudly as they could, and if the wind had been blowing in the right direction probably they would have been heard on their father’s dock, or by some of the men in the fish house. but, as it was, the wind was blowing the wrong way and carried the voices of the children out to sea.
just at this time, for some reason or other, there were no other boats around bunny and sue, though at most times there were plenty of crafts coming and going. a fisherman, a lobsterman, or any one who had seen the drifting children and dog could soon have rowed after them and brought them to shore.
the children soon gave up trying to shout and make their voices carry to their father’s dock. they knew enough about winds to feel that they never could be heard the way it was now blowing.
“there’s a man on shore. maybe he’ll hear us,” suggested sue, pointing toward an old[157] fisherman who was spreading his nets out to dry.
“all right, let’s call to him,” proposed bunny.
again they shouted. but either the man was deaf and did not hear them or, if he heard the voices of the little boy and girl, he thought they were just playing, or “cutting up,” as he might have called it.
so this was of no use, and bunny and sue began to feel a bit frightened. still it was early in the day, and though the wind blew rather hard there was no sign of a storm. and the children knew that before they drifted out to sea some one would row out after them.
but it was not pleasant to feel that they were drifting away, and bunny and sue wanted to get to shore, or to their father’s dock, as soon as they could.
“can’t we do something, bunny?” asked sue, after a while.
“what can we do?” he asked.
“oh, i know!” suddenly cried the little girl. “we can send patter to shore to get somebody to come after us.”
[158]“how?” asked bunny, for he did not quite see this plan.
“why,” went on sue, “don’t you remember how patter used to jump into the water after your cap?”
“yes, he’ll do that,” admitted bunny.
“then throw your cap into the water now,” said sue. “it’s an old one and won’t be hurt.”
“but what good will it do?” asked bunny. “he’ll jump in and bring my cap back to me here in the boat.”
“i don’t believe he’ll do that,” said sue. “did he ever bring your cap to you in a boat, bunny?”
“no, he always brought it to shore.”
“and i guess he’ll do that now,” went on sue. “he’s used to taking caps to shore and not to boats. if you throw your cap in he’ll jump in after it and swim to the shore with it. and then he’ll bark and maybe bunker blue or somebody will hear him, and then they can come out and get us.”
bunny thought this over for a moment or two. then he said:
[159]“i guess maybe that would be good. i’ll do it.”
he took off his cap—an old one—and threw it as far from the boat as he could toss it. almost as soon as it fell into the water, patter leaped overboard and swam toward the cap.
now he was almost up to it—now he had reached it. but would he turn and swim back to the boat with it or would he carry it to shore as bunny and sue hoped? eagerly they watched him.
then it was patter showed his training. never having been taught to take a cap to a boat, he kept on swimming toward shore, as he had always done when he leaped from the bank of a stream and swam out to get the cloth head-covering.
naturally you would have thought that patter would swim back to where bunny was, whether on shore or in a boat. but the dog did not. he seemed to think shore was the proper place for caps that he took from the water, and to shore he went.
climbing out on the sandy beach, patter gave himself a shake to get rid of as much[160] water as possible, and then he laid the cap down and began barking. long and loud barked patter.
now, it is a strange thing about the bark of a dog. it can be heard farther than most other sounds. balloonists, carried high into the air, say that the bark of a dog is the last sound they can hear from the earth they are leaving.
and so, as it happened, patter’s barking was heard when the calls of bunny and sue had not been. besides, patter was on shore and nearer the dock than the drifting boat.
bunker blue heard the dog’s barking cries. at first the red-haired fish boy paid little attention to the barking, but when patter kept it up for some time bunker said:
“i wonder what ails that dog? he sounds like bunny’s.”
“why don’t you go out and see,” suggested one of the other men on the dock. mr. brown had not yet come back.
“i will go,” said bunker.
as he went out on the dock he looked up the beach and saw patter standing near bunny’s[161] cap and barking. at first bunker did not see bunny and sue in the boat, which had, by this time, drifted farther out. but bunker knew the trick dog, and he felt sure something was wrong, for bunny and sue were never far away from their pet.
bunker ran up the beach toward patter, and then the fish boy saw bunny’s cap. he knew it at once.
“my goodness, i hope nothing has happened to those children!” thought bunker blue. “i hope they haven’t fallen overboard! where are they, patter?” he asked. “where are bunny and sue?”
patter’s only answer was to bark more loudly. then bunker blue looked across the bay. he saw the drifting boat and his sharp eyes made out in it the figures of two children.
“that must be bunny and sue,” he said. “i’ll go after them.”
in a few minutes bunker was rowing rapidly out toward the drifting boat. patter jumped in with the fish boy, taking bunny’s wet cap with him. in about five minutes[162] bunker had reached the drifting boat and had made it fast to his own.
“what in the world did you two want to come away out here for without any oars?” he asked. “you ought to know better than that!”
“we didn’t come—we were drifted out,” said bunny, telling exactly what had happened, if not explaining very fully.
“well, you ought to look and make sure a boat is fast before you get into it to play,” scolded bunker, as he began to row back to shore.
“we will next time,” said sue.
so the adventure ended happily, though there might have been danger had no one seen the children and gone after them. when mr. brown came back to the dock and heard what had happened, he made bunny and sue promise to be more careful.
the children gave their father the message sent by their mother and then, as the day was still young, mr. brown said:
“i’m going to the hospital to see jason stern. do you children want to come with me?”
[163]“could we take patter?” asked bunny.
“who is jason stern?” asked sue.
“he is the old man who came to our house the night you got patter,” her father said. “he’s in the hospital from an accident that happened to him. i’m going to see him to try to cheer him up.”
“maybe if he could see patter do some tricks he’d cheer up more,” suggested bunny.
“maybe he would,” agreed his father. “so come along to the hospital with me. the old man seems to have no friends, and i take an interest in him.”
mr. brown and the children were soon at the hospital, going in an automobile with patter riding on the back seat as naturally as if he belonged there.
“we’d like to see mr. stern,” said daddy brown, when they entered the office of the hospital.
“may i take my dog up and make him do tricks?” asked bunny.
“he means to make the dog do tricks,” said sue, as if afraid the nurse in the office might think mr. stern had to do tricks.
[164]“yes, since mr. stern is now in the sun parlor, and not in any of the wards or rooms, it will be all right to take your dog up,” said the nurse, with a smile. “i’m sure i hope you can cheer him,” she added in a low voice to mr. brown. “he doesn’t take any interest in life, and he must, if he is to get well.”
“i’ll see what we can do,” said mr. brown.
