“Oh, I hope nothing is broken!” said Mrs. Brown.

“Not with us,” answered her husband.  “But there is an automobile just ahead of us that seems to be in trouble.  They are stuck in the mud, I think.”

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, their mother, Uncle Tad and even Splash got out to see what the matter was.  I don’t really believe Splash cared what had happened, but he always went where Bunny and Sue went, and when he saw them go this time he went with them.

Walking up toward the front part of the big automobile, where Bunker Blue and Daddy Brown sat, Mrs. Brown, Uncle Tad and the children saw, just ahead, a small automobile, off to one side of the road.  The wheels were away down in the soft mud, and a man at the steering wheel was trying to make the car move up onto the hard road, but he could not do it.

“You seem to be in trouble,” said Daddy Brown.  There were two ladies out on the road, watching the man trying to start the car.

“I am in trouble,” said the man down in the mud.  “I turned off the road to pass a hay wagon, but I did not think the mud was so soft down here, or I never would have done it.  Now I am stuck and I can’t seem to get out.”

“Perhaps I can help you,” said Daddy Brown.  “I have a very strong automobile here.  I’ll go on ahead, keeping to the road, and I’ll tie a rope to your car, and fasten the other end to mine.  Then I’ll pull you out of the mud.”

“I’d be very thankful to you if you would.”

“Yes, we’d be ever so much obliged,” echoed the two ladies, whose shoes were all muddy from having jumped out of the automobile down into the ditch.

It did not take Daddy Brown and Bunker Blue long to fasten a rope from their automobile to the one stuck in the mud.  Then when the big auto-moving van, in which the Browns were going to camp, started off down the road, it pulled the small car from the mud as easily as anything.

“Thank you, very much,” said the man when he saw that he and the ladies could go on again.  “The next time I get behind a hay wagon I’ll wait until I have room to turn out, without getting into a mud hole.  I’m very much obliged to you, Mr. Brown, and if ever you get stuck in the mud I hope I can pull you out.”

“I’m afraid you couldn’t do it with your small car, when my auto is such a large one.”  Mr. Brown answered, “but thank you just the same.”

Then the man in his small automobile, rode off with the two women, and, a little later, the Browns were once more on their way.

It was a little before noon when they came in sight of a big lake, which they could see through the trees.  It was not far from the road.

“Oh, what lake is that?” asked Mrs. Brown.

“That is Lake Wanda, where we are going to camp,” said Mr. Brown.  “We’ll turn in toward it, pretty soon, and begin putting up the tents.”

“You said we’d have dinner first!” cried Bunny Brown.