“Let’s go find them,” said Sue.  “Maybe they went out in the boat.”

“We’ll look,” agreed Bunny.

The two children went to the edge of the lake, where a big willow tree overhung the water.  The boat was kept tied to this tree.

“Oh, the boat’s gone!” exclaimed Sue, as she reached the place and did not see it.  “The boat’s gone, Bunny!”

“Then they must have gone for a row, and they didn’t take us!” and Bunny was much disappointed.  He looked across the lake, up and down, as did Sue, and then both children cried out: 

“Oh, look!” said Sue.

“There’s the boat,” added Bunny.  “And Tom Vine is in it all alone!  He hasn’t got any oars, either.  Look, Sue!”

Surely enough, there was the boat, some distance out in the lake, and Tom, the city boy, who knew nothing at all about boats, was in it.  As he saw Bunny and Sue he waved his hands to them, and cried: 

“Come and get me!  I can’t get back!  I’m afraid!  Come and get me!”

CHAPTER XI

TOM SEES A MAN

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue stood by the lake shore, and didn’t know what to do.  Some distance out on the water floated the boat with Tom Vine standing up in it, waving his hands.  And Tom cried once more: 

“Come and get me!  Come and get me!”

Bunny was the first to speak after that.  And he said just the right thing.

“Sit down, Tom!” cried Bunny.  “Sit down, or you’ll tip over, and then you’ll be drowned, and we can’t get you.”

Bunny shouted loudly, and his clear, high voice could easily be heard by Tom, for there was no wind, or at least only a little, to ruffle the water of the lake.  Tom heard, and he knew what Bunny meant.  Very carefully he sat down on one of the seats in the boat.

“Are you coming to get me?” he asked.  “I can’t get back to shore, and I can’t swim.  I don’t like it out here!”

“Just sit still, and we’ll think up a way to get you,” called Bunny.  “But don’t stand up, whatever you do.”

“No, you must keep sitting down,” added Sue.

Mr. Brown had often told his children how to act when in boats.  Small as they were they could both swim a little, Bunny, of course, better than Sue, because he was older.  And they had both been told what to do in case they fell into the water—­hold their breath until they came to the top, when someone might save them, if they could not swim out.

But it was what Mr. Brown had told Bunny about not standing up in a boat that the little fellow now first remembered to shout to Tom.  He did not want to see the new boy fall over into the lake.

And Tom must have known what Bunny meant, for he was now sitting very quietly in the boat, looking toward the shore where Bunny and Sue stood.

“How did you get out there?” Bunny asked.  He had not yet thought of a way to get Tom back to land.