“It’s too pretty to catch,” said Sue.  “But, oh!  Look at the pretty pond lilies!” and she pointed to some farther up the creek.  “Can we get some, Tom?”

“Wait until I catch one more fish,” begged Bunny.

Bunny soon caught another fish, which had stripes around it “like a raccoon,” Sue said.

“That’s a perch,” Tom told the children.  “They’re good to eat, too.  But now we’ll row up for the lilies.”

However, in spite of the fact that their boat did not take much water, it ran aground before it reached the lilies.

“Oh, how are we going to get them?” asked Sue, in disappointment.

“I’ll wade after them,” said Tom.  “I can take off my shoes and socks.  The water won’t be much more than up to my knees after I get over the mud bar on which the boat has stuck.”

Tom was soon wading in the mud and water, his trousers well rolled up.  He was just reaching for one very large lily when he gave a sudden call, threw up his hands and sank down out of sight.

“Oh, Tom’s gone!  He’s drowned!” cried Sue.

“We’ve got to save him!” shouted Bunny, struggling with the oars.  But the boat was fast in the mud, and he could not move it.

“What shall we do?” gasped Sue.

Before Bunny could answer, Tom’s head appeared above the muddy water.  He had hold of the pond lily.

“I’m all right,” he said.  “I stepped on the edge of a hole under the water, and it was so slippery I went down in before I knew it.  But the deepest part is only over my waist, and now that I’m wet I might as well stay and get all the lilies you wish.”

“Oh, that’s too bad!” cried Sue.

“Not at all,” said Tom.  “I like it.  Afterward I’ll take a swim in the clean part of the lake and wash off.”

So, wet and muddy as he was, his clothes covered with slime from the bottom of the creek, Tom kept on gathering the lilies.  Once he found a mud turtle which he tossed into the boat for Bunny.  The turtle seemed to go to sleep in a corner.

“There’s a nice bunch for you,” said Tom, coming back to the boat with the flowers for the little girl.

“Oh, thank you, so much!” said Sue.  “But I’m sorry you got wet.”

“I’m not.  These clothes needed washing anyhow,” laughed Tom.

With that Tom pushed the boat off the mud bar, and down the creek into deeper water, the children sitting on the seats.

“Now I’ll tie you to shore, go in swimming in this clean water, and row you home after I’ve dried out a bit,” said Tom.  So he went in swimming with all his clothes on, except his shoes and socks, and soon he was clean.

“Mother will be so glad to get the pond lilies,” said Sue.

“And I guess she’ll be glad to get my fish,” said Bunny.  “There’s ’most enough for dinner.”

Tom was nearly dry when he reached home, and no one said anything about his wet clothes.

“Oh, what lovely flowers!” exclaimed Mrs. Brown.  “And what fine fish.  Did you catch them all alone, Bunny?”