Splash dropped the stick at Bunny’s feet, and wagging his wet tail, spattered drops all over Sue.  The dog barked, looking up at Bunny, and seeming to say: 

“There, little master!  Didn’t I do that fine?  Wasn’t that just what you wanted me to do?”

“No!  No!” cried Bunny.  “I don’t want the stick, Splash!  Take it to Tom—­out in the boat—­take it to him!” and he pointed to Tom.

Once more Bunny threw the stick into the water, and once more Splash sprang in and brought it to shore.  It was not until Bunny had told Splash four times, that the dog knew what was wanted.

Then the fifth time, when Bunny threw the stick into the water, Splash jumped in after it and swam out to Tom in the boat.  Tom kept calling: 

“Here, Splash!  Here, Splash!  Come on, good dog!”

Up to the boat, with the stick and cord, swam the dog.  Tom made the string fast to the boat, and then Bunny and Sue, standing on shore, pulled on their end.  They pulled slowly at first, so as not to break the cord.  But, once the boat was started, it came along easily, and soon Tom was on dry land again.  Splash swam along behind the boat.

“There!” Tom cried, as he tied the boat fast.  “I’ll never do that again!”

“We’re not let get in the boat,” said Bunny, “but I guess daddy forgot to tell you.”

“If he had I’d never have gotten in,” Tom said.  “But I’m glad you pulled me to shore.”

The rest of the campers came back soon after that, and Mr. Brown got Tom to promise never to get in the boat alone again.  Of course Tom was not in any real danger as long as he kept still, and Mr. Brown might easily have gone out and rescued him in another boat.  But I think it was very clever of Bunny and Sue, and Splash, too, to get Tom back to shore as they did; don’t you?

There were many happy, joyful days at Camp Rest-a-While.  The children went on little picnics in the woods and often they were taken out in the boat by Bunker Blue.  Bunny had a real fishpole and line and hook now, with “squiggily” worms, as Sue called them, for bait, and the little boy caught some real fish.

It was about a week after Tom’s adventure in the drifting boat that one day, as he was walking through the woods with Bunny and Sue, on their way back from a farmhouse where they had gone after milk, that Tom suddenly came to a stop along the path.

“Wait a minute!” he said in a whisper, to Bunny and Sue.

“What’s the matter?” Bunny wanted to know.  “You look afraid, Tom.  Are you?”

“Yes, I am,” said Tom, and even Sue could tell that he was when she looked at him.

“Did you—­did you see a snake?” she asked, drawing closer to Bunny, for Sue did not like snakes, either.

“No, it wasn’t a snake,” returned Tom.  “It was a man.  Here, come on back among the bushes, and he can’t see us,” and, as he spoke, Tom drew Bunny and Sue away from the path, behind some thick bushes.  Tom seemed very much afraid of something.  And he had said he had seen a man.  Bunny and Sue could not imagine why Tom should be afraid of a man.