The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea | Page 5

seconds, but not so much as a thought of fear entered her mind. Crazy
Jane went to work methodically to free herself, which she succeeded in
doing a few seconds after her companions had reached the surface.
"Thave me, oh, thave me!" wailed Tommy Thompson chokingly.
There followed a great splashing, accompanied by shouts and choking
coughs. About this time Jane McCarthy's head appeared above the
water. She took a long, gasping breath, then called out:
"Here we are, darlin's! Is anybody wet?"

"Girls, are you all here?" cried Miss Elting anxiously. "Call your
names."
They did so, and there was relief in every heart when it was found that
not a girl was missing. But they had yet to learn how they happened to
be in the water. The latter was cold as ice, it seemed to them, and their
desire now was to get to shore as quickly as possible. Which way the
shore lay they did not know, but from the looks of the sky-line it was
apparent that they would not be obliged to go far in either direction to
find a landing place.
"Follow me, girls," directed the guardian. "We will get out of here and
talk about our disaster afterward. Harriet, please bring up the rear. Be
sure that no one is left behind."
The splashing ceased, each girl starting forward with her own particular
stroke: Tommy swimming frog-fashion, Margery blowing, puffing, and
groaning, paddling like a four-footed animal.
"Oh, help!" she moaned.
"I'm glad I'm not tho fat ath you are," observed Tommy to the puffing
Margery.
"That will do, Tommy! Buster is quite as well able to take care of
herself as are you. I've touched bottom! Here we are, girls. Oh, I am so
glad!"
"Where ith it? I can't thee the bottom."
"Stop swimming, and you'll feel it," suggested Jane, who, having
reached the shore, waded out of the water and ran, laughing, up the
bank. "My stars, what a mess!"
One by one the others emerged from the cold water and stood shivering
on the beach.
"Wring out your clothes," directed Miss Elting. This, some of them

were already doing. Margery sat down helplessly. Harriet assisted her
to her feet.
"You mustn't do that. You surely will catch cold. Keep moving, dear,"
ordered Harriet.
"I can't. My clothes weigh a ton," protested Margery.
"Buthter thinkth it ith her clotheth that are heavy," jeered Tommy. "It
ithn't your clotheth, Buthter; it'th you."
"Make her stop, Miss Elting. Don't you think I am suffering enough,
without Tommy making me feel any worse?"
"Yes, I do. Tommy, will you please stop annoying Margery?"
"Yeth, Mith Elting, I'll thtop until Buthter getth dry again. But I'm jutht
ath wet at thhe ith, and I'm not croth."
"Girls, we have had a very narrow escape. I dread to think what would
have happened had that automobile top been up. We should give thanks
for our deliverance. But I don't understand how we came to get in there,
or what it is that we did get into," said the guardian.
"I know. It wath water," Tommy informed her. "It wath wet water, too,
and cold water, and--"
A shivering chorus of laughs greeted her words. Some of the girls
began whipping their arms and jumping up and down, for all were very
cold.
"Can't we run?" asked Harriet.
"Yes, if we can decide where the water is, and where it isn't," replied
Miss Elting. "Suppose we find the road? We can run up and down that
without danger of falling in."
"It is just to the left of us; I can see the opening between the trees,"
answered Harriet. She moved in the direction she had indicated, "Here

it is. Come on, girls."
The others picked their way cautiously to her. Harriet started up the
road at a run, followed by the others and accompanied by the "plush,
plush, plush!" of shoes nearly full of water. Tommy sat down.
"What are you doing on the ground?" shrieked Margery, as she
stumbled and fell over her little companion. "Why don't you tell me
when you are going to sit down, so that I won't fall over you?"
"You wouldn't, if you weren't tho fat."
"Tommy!" broke in Miss Elting. The whole party had come to a halt,
following Margery's mishap.
"I beg your pardon, Mith Elting. I forgot. Buthter ithn't dry yet. What
am I doing? Yeth, I'm bailing out my thhoeth. Ugh! How they do thtick
to my feet. Oh, I can't get them on again!" wailed Tommy.
"What a helpless creature you are," answered Harriet laughingly. "Here,
let me help you. There. You see how easy it is when once you make up
your mind that you really can."
"No, I don't thee. It ith too dark.