CHAPTER XXI

THE CIRCUS

"Oh my!" cried Bunny Brown, as he saw his sister topple out of the boat into the lake. "Oh, dear!"

By this time Uncle Tad, the old soldier, was ready for action. He took off his coat, without standing up in the boat, for well he knew how dangerous that was, and he was just ready to slip overboard into the water, the bottom of which he could see, when Dix, who had thrust his head under the surface, came up with Sue held in his strong jaws, his teeth fastened in her dress near the neck.

"Oh, Dix! Dix!" cried Bunny, in delight. "I'm so glad you saved my sister. Oh, Dix! I'll love you all my life!"

Dix, holding Sue with her head well above the water, was swimming toward the boat. Bunny, eager to do what he could to help his sister, was leaning over the side, ready to reach her as soon as the dog came near enough. Then Uncle Tad cried:

"Sit still, Bunny! I'll take Sue in. But I must do it at the stern of the boat, and not over the side, as that might tip us over. You sit still in the middle of the boat."

Bunny, who had lived near the seash.o.r.e all his life knew that "stern"

meant the back of the boat. And he remembered that his father had often told him if ever he fell out of a boat and wanted to get in again without tipping the boat over, to do so from the stern, or from the bow, which is the front. A row-boat will not tip backwards or forwards as easily as it will to either side.

As soon as Bunny heard what Uncle Tad said, he obeyed. He sat down in the bottom of the boat between the seats. Then the old soldier, going to the stern, called to Dix:

"Around this way, old dog! Bring her here and I'll take her in. Come on, Dix!"

Whether the dog knew that it was safer to bring a person in over the stern of a boat or over the bow instead of over the side, I do not know.

At any rate he did what Uncle Tad told him to do, and in another moment was close to the boat with Sue in his jaws. Uncle Tad lifted her into the boat and at once turned her on her face and raised her legs in the air. This was to let any water that she might have swallowed run out.

Sue began to kick her legs. She gasped and wiggled.

"Keep still!" cried Bunny. "Uncle Tad is giving you first aid." Bunny had often seen the lifeguards at the beach do this to swimmers who went too far out.

"I--I won't keep still, Bunny Brown!" gasped Sue. "And I--I don't need any first aid! I just helded my breath under water, I did, and I didn't swallow much anyhow. I was holding my breath when Uncle Tad began to raise up my legs, that's why I wiggled and couldn't speak. I'm all right now and I'm much obliged to you and Dix, Uncle Tad, and I hope my Sallie Malinda isn't in the lake."

Sue said this all at one time and then she had to stop for breath. But what she said was true. Her father had given her swimming lessons, and Sue was really a good little diver, and perfectly at home where the water was not too rough or deep. And, as she had said, as soon as she felt herself in the water she had taken a long breath and held it before her nose and mouth went under.

So while Sue was holding her breath, Dix had reached down and caught her, before she had really sunk to the bottom. For Sue had on a light and fluffy dress, and that really was a sort of life preserver. As it was, the dog had brought Sue to the boat before she had swallowed more than a few spoonfuls of water, which did her no harm. Of course she was all wet.

"You've gone in swimming, anyhow," said Bunny, as soon as he saw that his sister was all right.

"Yes, and we must get her to sh.o.r.e as soon as we can," said Uncle Tad.

"Climb in, Dix, and don't scatter any more water on us than you can help, though we'll forgive you almost anything for the way you saved Sue."

The dog climbed in, over the stern where Uncle Tad told him to, and then gave himself a big shake.

All dogs do that when they come from the water, and Dix only acted naturally. He gave Bunny and Uncle Tad a shower bath but they did not mind. Sue could not be made any wetter than she already was.

"Now for a fast row to sh.o.r.e," said Uncle Tad. "I saw a farmhouse not far from where we got out of Mr. Jason's wagon, and I guess you can dry your clothes there, Sue."

As Uncle Tad started to row Sue cried:

"But where's Sallie Malinda? Where's my Teddy bear? I won't go without her!"

She spoke as if she meant it. Bunny and Uncle Tad looked on both sides of the boat, and there, on the white sandy bottom of the lake, in about four feet of water, lay the Teddy bear. It's eyes were lighted which made it the more easily seen, for Sue must have pressed the switch as she herself fell overboard. And, as it happened, the batteries and electric lighted eyes were not harmed by water.

"I'll get her for you," said Uncle Tad, and he reached for the Teddy bear with a boat hook, soon bringing up the toy.

"Oh, I hope she isn't spoiled!" cried Sue.

"She can dry out with you when you get to the farmhouse," said Bunny, and then Uncle Tad began to row toward sh.o.r.e.

Mr. and Mrs. Brown were surprised, and not a little worried, when they heard what had happened to Sue. But the little girl herself was quite calm about it.

"I just held my breath," she said. "I knew Bunny or somebody would get me out."

"I was going to," declared Bunny.

"Yes, I guess he'd have dived over in another second," remarked Uncle Tad. "But Dix was ahead of both of us."

"Well, I'm glad you're all right," said Mother Brown. "I do hope you won't take cold. We must get your wet clothes off."

Just then Mr. Jason came back with his horses and wagon, and he quickly drove the whole party to a near-by farmhouse where Sue, and all the others, were made welcome. Before the warm kitchen fire Sue was dressed in some dry clothes of a little girl who lived on the farm, while her own were put near the kitchen stove.

In a few hours the party was ready to go back to the "Ark," meanwhile having spent a good time at the farmhouse. Sue seemed all right, and really she had not been in much danger, for the water was not deep, and Uncle Tad was a good swimmer.

Bunny and Sue slept rather late the next morning, but when they did awaken they heard a queer rumbling on the road beside which their automobile was drawn up.

"Is that thunder?" asked Bunny.

"It sounds like it," answered Sue, who showed no signs of having caught cold from her bath in the lake.

The children peered from the little windows near their bunks. They saw going along the road a number of gaily painted wagons--great big wagons, drawn by eight or ten horses each, and with broad-tired wheels.

Together Bunny and Sue cried:

"It's a circus! It's a circus! Hurrah!"

CHAPTER XXII

A LION IS LOOSE

Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue lost no time in getting dressed that morning, and hurrying out to the tiny dining room where their mother was getting breakfast.

"Did you see it?" gasped Sue.

"Have the elephants gone past yet?" Bunny inquired, his eyes big with excitement.