Just then along came Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrels.
"Stick up your tail like a sail and the wind will blow you ashore!" they cried to Buddy. "That's what we did."
"I haven't any tail," answered Buddy, real sorrowful-like.
"That's so," said the little squirrel boys, and it began to look pretty bad for poor Buddy, let me tell you.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Mamma Pigg. "I'll never see my poor boy again," for he was quite far off by this time.
Then, all of a sudden, down to the edge of the pond, came rushing Percival, the old circus dog.
"I'll save Buddy!" he cried. "I'll carry a rope out to him, and he can fasten it to the boat, and then we can pull him ashore."
Well, Percival took a rope in his mouth and started to swim out, but a funny thing happened. The water got in his mouth and washed the rope away, and he couldn't carry it, though he tried a number of times.
Then everybody felt sorry, and Jackie Bow Wow was just suggesting that they build a raft and float out on it to Buddy, when who should come along but Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck. They all told him what the trouble was, and he said, "Quack! Quack! Quack!" three times, just like that, and exclaimed:
"I have it! I can swim out with the rope in my bill, for my head will be above the water."