Harper's Young People, August 29, 1882 / An Illustrated Weekly

A STAMPEDE IN CAMP.
Luckily the water was only four feet deep, as Charley found when he tried to touch bottom; so he stopped swimming, and with the water nearly up to his shoulders, stood still and began to think what to do next.
The canoes—including the sunken Midnight —were a good mile from the shore, and although the sandy shoal on which Charley was standing was firm and hard, it was of small extent, and the water all around it was too deep to be waded.
You'll have to get into one of our canoes, said Harry.
How am I going to do it without capsizing her? replied Charley.
I don't believe it can be done, said Harry, as he looked first at the Sunshine and then at the Twilight ; but then you've got to do it somehow. You can't swim a whole mile, can you?
Of course I can't, but then it won't do me any good to spill one of you fellows by trying to climb out of the water into a canoe that's as full now as she ought to be. Besides, I'm not going to desert the Midnight .
I thought the Midnight had deserted you, said Joe. If my canoe should go to the bottom of the lake without giving me any warning, I shouldn't think it a bit rude to leave her there.
Don't talk nonsense! exclaimed Charley; but come here and help me get my canoe afloat again. We can do it, I think, if we go to work the right way.
Charley found no difficulty in getting hold of the painter of his canoe with the help of his paddle. Giving the end of the painter to Joe, he took the Dawn 's painter, and by ducking down under the water succeeded after two or three attempts in reeving it through the stern-post of the sunken canoe, and giving one end to Harry and the other to Tom. Then, taking the bow painter from Joe, he grasped it firmly with both hands, and at a given signal all the boys, except Joe, made a desperate effort to bring the wreck to the surface.