Bunny Brown and his sister Sue stood by the lake shore, and didn't know what to do. Some distance out on the water floated the boat with Tom Vine standing up in it, waving his hands. And Tom cried once more:
"Come and get me! Come and get me!"
Bunny was the first to speak after that. And he said just the right thing.
"Sit down, Tom!" cried Bunny. "Sit down, or you'll tip over, and then you'll be drowned, and we can't get you."
Bunny shouted loudly, and his clear, high voice could easily be heard by Tom, for there was no wind, or at least only a little, to ruffle the water of the lake. Tom heard, and he knew what Bunny meant. Very carefully he sat down on one of the seats in the boat.
"Are you coming to get me?" he asked. "I can't get back to shore, and I can't swim. I don't like it out here!"
"Just sit still, and we'll think up a way to get you," called Bunny. "But don't stand up, whatever you do."
"No, you must keep sitting down," added Sue.
Mr. Brown had often told his children how to act when in boats. Small as they were they could both swim a little, Bunny, of course, better than Sue, because he was older. And they had both been told what to do in case they fell into the water—hold their breath until they came to the top, when someone might save them, if they could not swim out.
But it was what Mr. Brown had told Bunny about not standing up in a boat that the little fellow now first remembered to shout to Tom. He did not want to see the new boy fall over into the lake.