The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat | Page 8

splashing into the water. Jane scrambled up, wet from
head to feet.
"Oh, me! Oh my! What a mess!"

Harriet leaned against the side of the cabin screaming with laughter.
Jane looked at her an instant, then, joined in the merriment.
"You are a sight!" gasped Harriet.
"Why shouldn't I be? I've been in the water? Are we going to stand here
and laugh all the morning, or are we going to get busy?"
For answer Harriet Burrell picked up a pail and began bailing out the
cockpit. Jane, dripping, took up another pail and together the girls
worked feverishly. There were several barrels of water in the cockpit,
so their backs were aching by the time they had finished bailing out the
water. The stern of the boat now floated clear, but the forward end was
hard and fast on the ground.
"The next thing is to get the boat off the gravel," announced Harriet.
"Maybe we can hitch the rowboat on and drag the 'Red Rover' off,"
suggested Jane.
Harriet shook her head.
"It won't work. We shall have to drag it off by main force. You can't be
any wetter, and I'm not afraid of a little water. Let's get outside the boat
and see what we can do."
A few seconds later as they took hold and directed their strength to the
task of moving the heavy boat, Harriet's feet slipped from under her.
She fell over into the water, coming up coughing, the water streaming
from her hair and shoulders, and falling into the lake in a shower. Jane
screamed with delight. "You're wet all right, now! No mistake about
that," jeered Crazy Jane. "And what have we done? Moved the old tub
three quarters of an inch. At this rate we'll have her afloat about supper
time. I wish I had my car hitched to it. I'd drag the old thing out so fast
it would make her dizzy."
Harriet had grasped the edge of the boat, tugging with all her might.
Jane dashed around to the other side, adding her strength to the task.

The boat gave way with such suddenness that both girls fell into the
lake. But they did not care. They could get no wetter. Therefore they
laughed and joked over their bedraggled condition. The "Red Rover"
floated clear of the rushes.
"Do the best you can. I'll get the rowboat," cried Harriet, splashing
toward the shore. Her clothes were so heavy with water that they
impeded her movements. She shoved the rowboat out, and, leaping in,
rowed it out into the lake with strong sweeps of the oars. In a few
moments she was alongside.
"The rope is too short. What shall we do?" called Jane.
"There is a rope attached to this boat. I think it will be long enough for
towing. Wait, I'll toss it to you. Make it fast. The boat is heavy and we
are going to have a hard pull, but I don't dare leave it here until we can
get help."
Jane waded over to the rowboat for the rope. She made it fast; then,
getting behind the houseboat, she pushed while Harriet rowed. The
"Red Rover" started but slowly. It was all the two girls could do to get
it in motion. Then when, finally, they had gotten under way with it,
Jane was obliged to wade out in water nearly to her neck to reach the
rowboat. She nearly upset it in getting aboard. Two pairs of oars,
instead of one, were now bent to the work of towing the houseboat. The
boat went broadside to the waves, nearly pulling them overboard. They
saw that it would be impossible to tow it to the Johnson dock in this
fashion.
"One of us must row and the other steer," declared Harriet.
"I'll do the rowing. You've had your share," cried Jane. "Wait, I'll pull
you alongside."
"No. You must keep the oars going, or the big boat will drift back into
shallow water again. I'll get back there all right." Harriet unshipped her
oars and stood up in the boat. She took a clean, curving dive into the
lake. Jane shouted delightedly.

"What a beauty!"
Harriet came up, shaking her head to free it from water, then struck out
for the houseboat. Getting aboard, weighted down by her clothes as she
was, was not an easy task. Finally, however, the girl managed to get
one foot over the edge. She clung there for a moment breathing heavily,
then slowly climbed aboard.
"Hur-r-r-ro-o-o-o!" wailed Jane. "They can't stop a Meadow-Brook Girl
with fire or water."
"Now pull," shouted Harriet, "I'll change places with you when you get
tired."
"I'll rest when I get tired," was the very practical reply of Crazy Jane
McCarthy.
Harriet took the