“Oh, dear! I can never do that!” squealed one of the other girls.
“Guess you'll have to do it if you don't want to stay here all night,” returned Lettie, promptly. “I see what you want, Hiram,” she added, and quickly adjusted the loop.
“Now, when you swing out over the bank, Sister will grab you, and steady you. It will be all right if you have a care. Now!” cried Hiram.
Lettie Bronson showed no fear at all as he drew her up and she swung out of the boat over the swiftly-running current. Hiram laid along the tree-trunk in an easy position, and began swinging the girl at the end of the rope, like a pendulum.
The river bank being at least three feet higher than the surface of the water; he did not have to shift the rope again as he swung the girl back and forth.
Sister, clinging with her left hand to the grapevine, leaned forward and clutched Lettie's hand. When she seized it, Sister backed away, and the swinging girl landed upright upon the bank.
“Oh, that's fun!” Lettie cried, laughing, loosing herself from “the loop. Now you come, Mary Judson!”
Thus encouraged they responded one by one, and even the girl who had broken down and cried agreed to be rescued by this simple means. The boatman then, after removing his shoes and stockings and rolling up his trousers, stepped out upon the sunken rock and pushed off the boat.
But it was leaking badly. He dared not take aboard his passengers again, but turned around and went down stream as fast as he could go so as to beach the boat in a safe place.
“Now how'll we get back to Scoville?” cried one of Lettie's friends. “I can never walk that far.”