anaged to get the door in the duck pond, on the edge of which it had
been placed over a mud puddle.

"There!" cried Bunny. "Get on the boat, Sue."

Bunny and Sue, who had taken off their shoes and stockings, stood up on
the big door. It floated nicely with them. A little wind blew out the
bag sail, and away they went.

CHAPTER XV

SPLASH IS LOST

"Bunny! Oh, Bunny! We're sailing! We're sailing!" joyfully cried Sue, as
she felt the barn-door raft moving through the water.

"Of course we're sailing," Bunny answered, as he stood up near the mast,
which is what the stick that holds the sail is called. The mast Bunny
had made was only a piece of a lima bean pole, and the sail was only an
old bag. But the children had just as much fun as though they were in
one of their father's big sail boats.

The duck pond was not very wide, but it was quite long, and when Bunny
and Sue had sailed across it to the other side, they turned around to go
to the upper end.

Bunny had found a piece of board, which he had nailed to another short
length of bean pole, and this made a sort of oar. This he put in the
water at the back of the raft to steer with.

Bunny Brown knew something about steering a boat, for he had often been
out with his father or Bunker Blue. And Bunny was quick to learn, though
he was not much more than six years old.

Harder blew the wind on the bag-sail, and faster and faster went Bunny
and Sue to the upper end of the pond. There were many ducks swimming on
the water, or putting their heads down below, into the mud, to get the
weeds that grew there. Sometimes they found snails, which some ducks
like very much.

But when the ducks saw the barn-door raft sailing among them, they were
afraid, and, quacking loudly, they paddled out of the way.

"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, as they sailed along, "there's the little ducks
that were hatched out by the hen mother."

"So they are!" exclaimed the little boy. The little ducks were swimming
in the water, and the hen mother was clucking along shore. She would not
go in the water herself, but stayed as near to it as she dared, on
shore. Perhaps she wanted to make sure the little ducks would not
drown. Of course they would not, unless a big fish pulled them under
water, for ducks are made on purpose to swim. And there were no big fish
in the pond, only little minnows, about half as big as a lollypop stick.

"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, as she saw the hen mother watching t