Dot began pushing and Don pulled until the heavy raft floated in shore far enough for Don to drag the chain off the stump.
The raft, released from its moorings, moved slightly out toward the former position, the chain slipping into the water and dragging behind.
Don was satisfied with the result of his idea and ran down to the spot where the logs could be readily edged into the water if the small ice floes were out of the way. He pushed and worked at the ice until a clear pathway of water lay before the logs. Those in the edge of the water, were easily shoved out, but the others were too heavy to budge.
"Hi, there! Dot, shall I bring out the lunch for the raft?" called Don, as he bethought him of going back to Dot.
"Yes, an' hurry up, 'cause I think this raft is movin' some toward the river!" replied Dot, anxiously.
"Ah, naw, she ain't! She's only swirling about a bit in the motion of the water!" said Don.
He ran and got the lunch and then tried to jump from one cake of ice to another just as he did when he went ashore. But he found that going ashore against the current was much easier than going out with the current, for every cake of ice he jumped upon shot out from under his feet with the river current.
As he was halfway over, he had to continue or leave Dot alone on the raft. That was entirely out of his plans, so he used his pole to push himself over as near to the large ice-floe as possible. The cake of ice he was on was small enough to be submerged every time Don pushed his pole against anything, and by the time he was able to jump on the large ice-floe his feet and legs were soaking wet again. Once up on the large floe, Don felt relieved for a fear had assailed him when he found he couldn't jump the small cakes.
"Push the raft over to me—I can't make this floe budge!" called Don.
So Dot shoved the pole against a mass of ice and moved the raft over toward Don's floe. As soon as he could jump, he came on the raft and the two felt better for being together.