But then, all of a sudden, something happened.  Laddie was doing too much capering about on the raft.  Before he knew it he stepped off with one foot, and, though he tried to get back on, he couldn’t.

Off he fell, right into the water, splashing down with his clothes on.  Zip pulled the raft along without the little boy on it.

“Hi!  What are you doing?” asked Russ.

“I—­I didn’t mean to!  I slipped off!” answered Laddie.  “But the water isn’t cold.”

“You’re all wet, though,” Russ said.  “Oh, you’ll get it!”

“These are my old clothes,” answered the smaller boy.  “Mother said it wouldn’t hurt to get ’em wet.”

“Did she say you could fall in with ’em on?” asked Russ.

“No,” answered Laddie slowly, “I didn’t know I was going to fall in, so I couldn’t ask her.  But I’m glad I did, ’cause it feels so nice, and he kicked around in the water.  The bottom being of clean sand, there was no mud, and, as Laddie had said, he wore old clothes.”

“Say, Zip is a regular steamboat engine!” exclaimed Russ, as the dog kept on pulling the raft, though Laddie had fallen off.  “We’ll make it bigger, Laddie, and then I can ride on it.”

“Maybe we both can,” said Laddie, who got up out of the water, and waded to shore.

“No, I guess the two of us would be too heavy for Zip to pull.  We’ll take turns,” said Russ.  “Come on, we’ll make a bigger raft.  There’s lots of wood out by the barn.”

And so the boys did.  Russ was stronger than Laddie, and could handle bigger boards and pieces of wood.  Soon the raft was made big enough so that Russ could stand up on it and not have it sink to the bottom of the lake near the shore.

“Do you like it? asked Laddie.

“It’s lots of fun,” answered Russ.  “I’m glad you thought of this.”

“I was trying to think of a riddle,” said Laddie.  “It was something about what makes the lake wet when it rains, and then I saw some pieces of board floating along and I thought of a raft and I made one.”

“And I’m glad you thought of it instead of the riddle,” said Russ with a laugh.  “You can’t ride on a riddle.”

“You could if a riddle was a train or a boat,” Laddie said.  “And I made up a riddle about the conductor punching the tickets and they didn’t get mad.  Don’t you ’member?”

“Oh, yes, I remember,” said Russ.  “But come on, we’ll have some more rides.”

So the boys took turns having Zip pull them along on the raft until the dog, much as he liked to go into the water after sticks, grew tired and would not splash out any more.

“Well, we’ll play it to-morrow,” said Laddie.

“Or this afternoon, maybe,” said his brother.

They tied the raft to a tree near shore, leaving the stick fast to the rope, ready for more fun.

“Mercy, Laddie, what happened to you?” asked Mrs. Bunker, as she saw the two boys come through the garden up to Grandma Bell’s house.  “Did you fall into the water?”