“SHE’S HALF FULL OF WATER.”
It was tiresome stooping over, packing the canoes, but finally they were all in order, and the Commodore gave the order to launch them. The lake was perfectly calm, and the little fleet started under paddle for a long, sandy point that jutted out into the lake some three miles from Newport. The Sunshine and the Dawn paddled side by side, and the two other canoes followed close behind them.
“Boys, isn’t this perfectly elegant?” exclaimed Harry, laying down his paddle when the fleet was about a mile from the shore and bathing his hot head with water from the lake. “Did you ever see anything so lovely as this blue water?”
“Yes,” said Charley; “the water’s all right outside of the canoes, but I’d rather have a little less inside of mine.”
“What do you mean,” asked Harry. “Is she leaking?”
“She’s half full of water, that’s all,” replied Charley, beginning to bail vigorously with his hat.
“Halloo!” cried Joe, suddenly. “Here’s the water up to the top of my cushions.”
“We’d better paddle on and get ashore as soon as possible,” said Harry. “My boat is leaking a little too.”
Charley bailed steadily for ten minutes, and somewhat reduced the amount of water in his canoe. The moment he began paddling, however, the leak increased. He paddled with his utmost strength, knowing that if he did not soon reach land he would be swamped; but the water-logged canoe was very heavy, and he could not drive her rapidly through the water. His companions kept near him, and advised him to drop his paddle and to bail, but he knew that the water was coming in faster than he could bail it out, and so he wasted no time in the effort. It soon became evident that his canoe would never keep afloat to reach the sand-spit for which he had been steering, so he turned aside and paddled for a little clump of rushes, where he knew the water must be shallow. Suddenly he stopped paddling, and almost at the same moment his canoe sunk under him, and he sprung up to swim clear of her.