“It can’t shove us very far, I think,” said Mr. Brown.  “We are too heavy for that.  But it might tip us over, this water might, or send us into a ditch out of which we would have a hard time to climb.  I’d like to anchor fast, if I could.”

“Why don’t you tie fast to a tree?” asked Uncle Tad.  “We have the heavy towing rope with us.”

“I guess that’s a good idea,” said Mr. Brown.  “We are being swept along the road and there are plenty of trees on either side.”

Bunny Brown was not listening at the door any longer.  His mother had called him and Sue to the dining-room table and given them some bread and milk to eat.  She thought this would take their attention off the trouble they were in.  For that there was trouble Mrs. Brown was sure.  Otherwise her husband and Uncle Tad would not have stayed so long outside looking about in the wind and the rain.

“Yes,” said Mr. Brown, after once more looking about with the aid of the lights from the eyes of Sue’s Teddy bear.  “We had best try to fasten the auto to some tree.  Then we’ll be held fast, for I do not believe the flood will reach much higher.  I have heard of high water in this part of the country, but it never gets much higher than this, if I remember rightly.”

“I’ll go in for the rope,” said Uncle Tad, “and we’ll try to make fast to some tree.  We’ll be lucky if we can do it before we run into something,” and he opened the door.

“Oh, what is the matter?”

“What has happened?”

“Tell us all about it!”

This is what Mrs. Brown, Bunny and Sue said as Uncle Tad, dripping wet, came back into the auto.  Dix and Splash thumped their tails on the floor, as though also asking what the matter was.

“Oh, it isn’t much,” said Uncle Tad.  “The brook rose into a river in the night, and tried to carry us away.  But we are going to anchor to a tree until morning.”

Bunny and Sue could easily understand what this meant, and they were not frightened, even though the automobile swayed about from side to side and bumped as a boat does when it goes over the bottom in shallow water.

Uncle Tad got the towrope out from a box, or locker, as Mr. Brown called it.  The rope was a strong one, as it was intended to be used in case the big automobile went into a ditch, in which event it could be pulled out.

With the rope Uncle Tad went out on the back steps again.

“We’re still moving,” said Mr. Brown.

“Are we any nearer the trees, so it will be easier to catch hold of one of them with a loop of the rope?” asked Uncle Tad.

“No, we’re farther off from the trees,” said Bunny’s father and, if the little boy had been listening, he would have felt worried about this.  But Mr. Brown was a good sailor, and if he knew how to anchor, or make fast, a boat in a big ocean, he might be supposed to know how to anchor, or stop, an automobile in a flood on the road.