Then the two children played the Robinson Crusoe game; that is, as much of it as Bunny could remember, which was not a great deal.  But they had good fun, walking about the island, and going into the green vine-bower now and then to get out of the sun, which was very hot.

But even as much fun as it was playing at being shipwrecked on an island, like Robinson, in the story book, the children soon tired of it.

“I guess we’d better go home,” said Sue after awhile.  “I’m terribly hungry, Bunny.”

“So’m I.”

“And if we can’t catch any fish, and can’t find any place to get things to eat from, we’d better go home.”

“Yes, I guess we had.  I wonder if I can row the boat?”

Bunny had often seen his father, or Bunker Blue, or sometimes his mother, row a boat, so he knew how it was done.  But he knew the oars in the boat in which he and Sue had gone adrift were heavy, and he was not very strong, though a sturdy little chap for his years.

“I’ll help you,” Sue said.  “But first I’ll have to un-Friday myself.  I must wash off this mud.”

“I’ll help you—­around behind your ears where you can’t see,” offered Bunny.

Sue went to a place near the water, where there was a flat rock, and leaned over to dip her handkerchief in.  She was going to use it as a washcloth.

But, whether she slipped, or leaned over too far, Sue never knew.  At any rate, soon after she had washed off the first bit of mud from her hands and wrists, she suddenly toppled, head first, right into the river!

“Oh!  Oh!  Bunny!” Sue cried, as she found herself in the water.

CHAPTER IX

THE RESCUE DOG

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue had often been in the water bathing.  They had even been allowed to go in the ocean, a little way, when their father or mother was with them, and they were just beginning to learn to swim.

But to fall suddenly into the water, with all one’s clothes on, is enough to frighten anybody, even someone older than Sue; so it is no wonder she began splashing about, instead of trying to swim, as her father had told her to do,

Bunny, for a moment, did not know what to do, but he had one great thought, and that was that he must help his sister.  He was a little distance away from her, and he called out: 

“I’m coming, Sue!  I’ll get you out!  Don’t be afraid!”

But Sue was afraid.  Her head went under water, and she had swallowed some, for she had forgotten another thing her father had told her, and this was: 

“When your head goes under water, hold your breath—­don’t breathe—­and then the water won’t get in your mouth and nose.”

But Sue forgot this, and she was choking and gasping in the river.  Luckily it was not deep, and he might easily have stood up at the place where she had fallen in.  The water would not have been quite up to her waist.