As she reached the pier she saw Ted and Tom placed on the end of it—Tom by Uncle Ben and Ted by his father. Water gushed out from the shoes of the small boys, and even seemed to splatter from their many pockets, and both of them were gasping and trying to wipe the drops from their eyes. Skyrocket was prancing about and barking as loudly as he could bark. At the same time he was wagging his tail, and that was a good sign, for it showed he knew Ted and Tom were all right.
“What happened?” gasped Mrs. Martin, as she hurried down to the dock. “Are you hurt?”
“Not a bit!” answered Uncle Ben, with a laugh. “Only wet. And they’ll soon dry in this wind.”
The wind was, indeed, blowing hard, and it was bringing a storm with it. The lake was getting rough.
“What happened, Teddy?” asked his mother.
“Oh, it was just a little accident,” explained Mr. Martin, as he and Uncle Ben got out of a boat from which they had reached over and pulled Ted and Tom out of the water. “The boys were helping us make everything snug from the storm that is coming, when Ted slipped off the pier and went into the lake.”
“And Tom tried to grab me, and he fell in, too!” added Ted. “Then we were both in, and we couldn’t swim very well with our clothes on.” Ted and Tom could both swim a little, not so very well though even with their clothes off.
“I could ’a’ caught you if I’d ’a’ seen you falling in,” declared Tom. “But you went in so quick!”
“Yes, it didn’t take him long!” laughed Mr. Martin. “He seemed to jump in as quickly as a frog jumps in off a log when he hears a boy with a dog coming.”
“And then what happened?” asked Mrs. Martin, as she wiped some of the water off Tom’s face with her handkerchief.