One day Bunny and Sue went down to the edge of the river.  They asked Aunt Lu to go with them, but she said she had a headache, and wanted to lie down.

“Don’t go far away, children,” called Mrs. Brown after the two tots, as they wandered down near the little stream.

“We won’t,” promised Bunny, and he really meant it.  But neither he nor Sue knew what was going to happen.

It was quite warm that day, and, as Bunny and Sue sat in the shade of a tree on the bank of the river, the little boy said: 

“Oh, Sue, wouldn’t it be nice if we could go on the river in the boat?”

“Yes,” said his sister, “but mother said we weren’t to.”

“I guess she meant we weren’t to go rowing in a boat—­I mean a loose boat—­one that isn’t tied fast,” said Bunny.  “I guess it would be all right if we sat in the boat while it was tied fast to shore.”

“Maybe,” said Sue.  She wanted, as much as did Bunny, to sit in the boat, for it was cooler down there.

“Let’s do it!” proposed Bunny.  “The boat is tied fast, but we can make believe we are rowing.  We’ll pretend we are taking a long trip.”

Neither of the children meant to do wrong, for they thought it would be all right to sit in the boat as long as it was tied fast.  So into it they climbed.  Then such fun as they had!  They took sticks and made believe to row.  They tied their handkerchiefs on other sticks and pretended to be sailing.  They rocked the boat gently to and fro, and Bunny called this “being out in a storm.”

Then they lay down on the broad seats and made believe it was night and that, when they awakened, they would be in a far-off land where coconuts grew on trees and where there were monkeys to toss them down.

And, before they knew it, both children were fast asleep, for the sun was shining warmly down on them.  Bunny awoke first.  He felt the boat tossing to and fro: 

“Don’t do that, Sue!” he called.  “You’ll tip us over.”

“Don’t do what?” asked Sue, sleepily.

“Don’t jiggle the boat,” said Bunny.  Then he opened his eyes wider and looked all about.  The boat was far from shore and was drifting down the river.  It had become untied while the children slept.

CHAPTER VII

BUNNY GOES FISHING

“On, Bunny!  Bunny!” cried Sue, clapping her hands.  “We’re having a sail!  We’re sailing!”

“Yes,” answered her brother, “that’s what we are, but—­”

He looked toward the shore and wondered if it were too far away for him to wade to it.  The river looked quite deep, though, and Bunny decided he had better not try it.

“Don’t you like sailing,” asked his sister Sue.

“Oh, yes, I like it all right,” was the reply, “but mother told us not to go out in the boat and we’ve done it.”

“But we didn’t mean to,” came from the little girl.  “The boat did it all by itself, and it isn’t our fault at all.”