"Of course not—she's our sister, and so is Flossie!" exclaimed
Freddie, as if that made a difference!
Mr. Bobbsey was now rowing out to the two small girls in the drifting boat. They did not seem to have any oars, and Bert and Freddie heard their father call to them again to sit down, so they would not tip over.
Then the lumber man reached the drifting craft, and carefully fastened it by a rope to the boat he was in.
"Now sit quietly and I'll pull you to shore," he said to the girls.
"You must not come out in a boat all alone. Where is your home?"
"Up there," replied the older girl, pointing to a house back of the lake shore road. "We didn't mean to come out," she went on. "We just sat in the boat when it was tied fast to the dock, but the knot must have come loose, and we drifted out. We're ever so much obliged to you for coming out to us."
"Well, don't get in boats again, unless some older person is with you," cautioned Mr. Bobbsey. By this time he had towed the boat, with the girls in it, to shore. As he did so a woman came running from the house, calling out:
"Oh, what has happened? Oh, are they drowned?"
"Nothing at all has happened," said Mr. Bobbsey, quietly. "Your children just drifted out, and I went and got them."
"Oh, and I've told them never, never to get into a boat!" cried the mother. "Girls, girls! What am I going to do to you?" she went on. "You might have fallen overboard."
"Yes, that is true, they might have," said Mr. Bobbsey. "But I think this will be a lesson to them, and no harm has come to them this time. But it is best for children to keep out of boats."