"Suppose one of them should fall overboard half a mile from the land, where I saw them yesterday. Do you think he could swim ashore?"
"Tim could."
"There are a great many things to be considered in such a case. His clothes might encumber him; he might have the cramp; he might get frightened."
"The others could save him."
"We do not know what they could do. Boys at play are very different from boys in the hour of peril. When I was a sailor before the mast, one of my shipmates, a very expert swimmer ordinarily, fell from the mainyard arm into the sea. Two of us jumped in to assist him; but he sank to the bottom like a lump of lead, and we never saw him again."
"That was strange," added Charles.
"He was taken unawares; he lost his self-command, and it might be so with the Bunkers. This rafting is dangerous business, and I advise you never to engage in it;" and Captain Sedley walked off towards his house.
"Father, I want to go up to the widow Weston's a little while," said Frank.
"Very well; but you must be back so as to go to bed and get up in season for your excursion to the city to-morrow."
"Come, Charley, I guess we won't go up on the raft," said Frank with a pleasant laugh.