“Oh, yes!” cried Ted and Janet, Lola and Tom.
“Me tum too!” cried Trouble.
“I can take them all if you’ll let me,” said the sailor to Mrs. Martin.
“Well, take them,” she said. “Now be good children with Uncle Ben!” she told them, as they started off.
“Yes’m, we will!” was the answer.
It was a nice little trip down the lake after the missing boats. They were seen on shore, just where the man had told Uncle Ben they would be, and soon the sailor was tying them to the stem of the motor boat to tow them back.
While he was doing this, the children wandered along to a little shady cove, and Tom and Ted, who always carried fishlines in their pockets, started to try their luck.
Uncle Ben had made fast the last boat, and he was going in search of the children, whom he could hear talking, but not see, when Lola came running up to him.
“Oh, Uncle Ben! Uncle Ben!” she cried. “A big white bird has got hold of Trouble, and it’s trying to fly away with him! Come and get Trouble away from the big, white bird!”