This seemed the best plan to follow. So the Curlytops sat in the boat and tried to pretend that they were enjoying the voyage and having a good time. But, to tell you the truth, they were rather worried and frightened.
The wind was now blowing stronger, but the children saw that this would, all the more quickly, send them to the opposite shore.
“Let’s eat!” suggested Ted, after a bit. “We’ll make believe we’re shipwrecked sailors and we’ll eat.”
“But don’t eat the cheese,” objected Janet. “We might find Jim the crow on the other shore, and we could catch him with some cheese.”
“All right,” agreed Teddy. He was not very fond of cheese anyhow, and he was willing that Jim should have it—if they could find Jim.
They were more than half way across the little bay, or arm of the lake, and they could see that the other shore was a sandy one on which to land when, from the woods they had left, came a shout.
“Where you children going with that boat?” hailed a man.
Looking back Janet and Ted saw a stranger standing on the shore near the place where they had dragged out the craft which had been hidden under the bushes. The man had a pair of oars in his hand, and it was evident that he had come to use his boat. He had probably taken the oars back home with him, knowing that the boat could not be taken far without them.
“Where you going with my boat?” he asked, rather angrily.
“We didn’t mean to take it away,” Ted called back. The talk could plainly be heard, as voices carry well over water, you know.