ogether.

He had not taken off much of his dress, which, we may remark in passing,
was of the simplest at all times--consisting of a pair of trousers, a
striped cotton shirt, and a grey cloth capote with a hood to it. His
capote and cap were left in charge of his sister. As for the shirt and
trousers, they could be easily dried again.

Nelly watched the place where her brother had disappeared with
breathless interest. As he did not reappear as quickly as she had
expected, she became greatly alarmed. In a few minutes more she would
certainly have rushed into the lake to the rescue, regardless of
consequences and of ducks, had not Roy's strange head-dress come
suddenly into view at the outward verge of the reeds. The lad had waded
in up to his neck, and was now slowly--almost imperceptibly--approaching
a group of ducks that were disporting themselves gaily in the water.

"They'll never let him near them," thought Nelly.

She was wrong, for at that moment an extremely fat and pert young duck
observed the bundle of reeds, and swam straight up to it, animated, no
doubt, by that reckless curiosity which is peculiar to young creatures.
Had its mother known what was inside of the bundle, she would no doubt
have remonstrated with her head-strong child, but, old and sagacious
though that mother was, she was completely deceived. She was not even
astonished when her duckling suddenly disappeared beneath the water,
thinking, no doubt, that it had dived. Soon the bundle of reeds drew
near to the mother, and she, too, disappeared suddenly below the water.
Whatever her astonishment was at feeling her legs seized from below, she
had not time to express it before her voice was choked. Nelly observed
these disappearances with intense amazement, and delight stamped every
lineament of her little visage.

When the bundle moved towards the father of the duck-family, that
gentleman became agitated and suspicious. Probably males are less
trusting than females, in all conditions of animal life. At all events
he sheered off. The bundle waxed impatient and made a rush at him. The
drake, missing his wife and child, quacked the alarm. The bundle made
another rush, and suddenly disappeared with a tremendous splash, in the
midst of which a leg and an arm appeared! Away went the whole brood of
ducks with immense splutter, and Nelly gave a wild scream of terror,
supposing--and she was right--that her brother had fallen into a hole,
an