“We’ll play in a boat while we’re waiting,” said Bunny.
There were many boats drawn up on the shore of Sandport Bay near Mr. Brown’s dock, and some boats were already in the water. Bunny and Sue got in one that was floating, and Patter scrambled in after them. Quite a little wind was blowing, and the children moved about in the boat, putting Patter through some of his tricks.
Suddenly Bunny looked up, glanced about, and cried:
“Sue, we’re going adrift!”
That meant the boat had become loosened and was floating away. Already it was some distance out in the bay, and there were no people near in other boats to go to the rescue of the children. As there were no oars in their boat they could not row back to shore, though had there been oars Bunny or Sue could have handled them.
“Oh, what are we going to do?” cried Sue, as the wind became stronger and stronger, drifting them farther and farther from the shore and their father’s dock.
CHAPTER XV
AT THE HOSPITAL
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were not afraid of being on the water in a boat. They knew how to swim, and they had paddled and rowed around Sandport Bay often enough to know how to handle a small boat.
But it was different—this being out in a boat with no oars. Bunny or Sue would never have done that of their own accord, for they knew how easy it was to drift away. And, if they had known the boat was not well fastened, they would have seen to that before they got in, for their father had taught them how properly to tie a knot that would not slip, one that would hold a boat securely and yet one which was easy to loosen.
The boat that Bunny and Sue had gotten in did not belong to their father, but to another fisherman, though the children knew he would not mind their playing in his craft.