“Follow me, girls,” directed the guardian.  “We will get out of here and talk about our disaster afterward.  Harriet, please bring up the rear.  Be sure that no one is left behind.”

The splashing ceased, each girl starting forward with her own particular stroke:  Tommy swimming frog-fashion, Margery blowing, puffing, and groaning, paddling like a four-footed animal.

“Oh, help!” she moaned.

“I’m glad I’m not tho fat ath you are,” observed Tommy to the puffing Margery.

“That will do, Tommy!  Buster is quite as well able to take care of herself as are you.  I’ve touched bottom!  Here we are, girls.  Oh, I am so glad!”

“Where ith it?  I can’t thee the bottom.”

“Stop swimming, and you’ll feel it,” suggested Jane, who, having reached the shore, waded out of the water and ran, laughing, up the bank.  “My stars, what a mess!”

One by one the others emerged from the cold water and stood shivering on the beach.

“Wring out your clothes,” directed Miss Elting.  This, some of them were already doing.  Margery sat down helplessly.  Harriet assisted her to her feet.

“You mustn’t do that.  You surely will catch cold.  Keep moving, dear,” ordered Harriet.

“I can’t.  My clothes weigh a ton,” protested Margery.

“Buthter thinkth it ith her clotheth that are heavy,” jeered Tommy.  “It ithn’t your clotheth, Buthter; it’th you.”

“Make her stop, Miss Elting.  Don’t you think I am suffering enough, without Tommy making me feel any worse?”

“Yes, I do.  Tommy, will you please stop annoying Margery?”

“Yeth, Mith Elting, I’ll thtop until Buthter getth dry again.  But I’m jutht ath wet at thhe ith, and I’m not croth.”

“Girls, we have had a very narrow escape.  I dread to think what would have happened had that automobile top been up.  We should give thanks for our deliverance.  But I don’t understand how we came to get in there, or what it is that we did get into,” said the guardian.

“I know.  It wath water,” Tommy informed her.  “It wath wet water, too, and cold water, and—­”

A shivering chorus of laughs greeted her words.  Some of the girls began whipping their arms and jumping up and down, for all were very cold.

“Can’t we run?” asked Harriet.

“Yes, if we can decide where the water is, and where it isn’t,” replied Miss Elting.  “Suppose we find the road?  We can run up and down that without danger of falling in.”

“It is just to the left of us; I can see the opening between the trees,” answered Harriet.  She moved in the direction she had indicated, “Here it is.  Come on, girls.”

The others picked their way cautiously to her.  Harriet started up the road at a run, followed by the others and accompanied by the “plush, plush, plush!” of shoes nearly full of water.  Tommy sat down.

“What are you doing on the ground?” shrieked Margery, as she stumbled and fell over her little companion.  “Why don’t you tell me when you are going to sit down, so that I won’t fall over you?”