"Oh, he does it! He does it again!" cried Laddie, capering up and down on the raft. "Now we'll make the boat bigger, Russ, and you can have a ride, and so can——"
But then, all of a sudden, something happened. Laddie was doing too much capering about on the raft. Before he knew it he stepped off with one foot, and, though he tried to get back on, he couldn't.
Off he fell, right into the water, splashing down with his clothes on. Zip pulled the raft along without the little boy on it.
"Hi! What are you doing?" asked Russ.
"I—I didn't mean to! I slipped off!" answered Laddie. "But the water isn't cold."
"You're all wet, though," Russ said. "Oh, you'll get it!"
"These are my old clothes," answered the smaller boy. "Mother said it wouldn't hurt to get 'em wet."
"Did she say you could fall in with 'em on?" asked Russ.
"No," answered Laddie slowly, "I didn't know I was going to fall in, so I couldn't ask her. But I'm glad I did, 'cause it feels so nice, and he kicked around in the water. The bottom being of clean sand, there was no mud, and, as Laddie had said, he wore old clothes."
"Say, Zip is a regular steamboat engine!" exclaimed Russ, as the dog kept on pulling the raft, though Laddie had fallen off. "We'll make it bigger, Laddie, and then I can ride on it."