he raft along, and so gave Laddie a
ride.

"Oh, it was lots of fun!" shouted the little boy, as the raft came into
shallow water where it would no longer float. For Zip had reached shore by
this time, and had dropped the stick at the feet of Russ. Then Zip stood
there, wagging his tail, and shaking the water off his shaggy coat,
waiting for Russ to toss the stick into the water again.

"Here you go, Zip! Bring it back!" cried Russ. "Bring the stick back
again!" and, once more, he tossed it into the water.

"Don't you want him to give you a ride?" asked Laddie.

"Wait till we see if he gives you another one," suggested Russ.

And Zip did. Out he swam to where the piece of wood floated, still tied to
the clothesline that was fast to the raft. And when Zip swam along, of
course he pulled the raft after him.

"Oh, he does it! He does it again!" cried Laddie, capering up and down on
the raft. "Now we'll make the boat bigger, Russ, and you can have a ride,
and so can----"

But then, all of a sudden, something happened. Laddie was doing too much
capering about on the raft. Before he knew it he stepped off with one
foot, and, though he tried to get back on, he couldn't.

Off he fell, right into the water, splashing down with his clothes on. Zip
pulled the raft along without the little boy on it.

"Hi! What are you doing?" asked Russ.

"I--I didn't mean to! I slipped off!" answered Laddie. "But the water
isn't cold."

"You're all wet, though," Russ said. "Oh, you'll get it!"

"These are my old clothes," answered the smaller boy. "Mother said it
wouldn't hurt to get 'em wet."

"Did she say you could fall in with 'em on?" asked Russ.

"No," answered Laddie slowly, "I didn't know I was going to fall in, so I
couldn't ask her. But I'm glad I did, 'cause it feels so nice, and he
kicked around in the water. The bottom being of clean sand, there was no
mud, and, as Laddie had said, he wore old clothes."

"Say, Zip is a regular steamboat engine!" exclaimed Russ, as the dog kept
on pulling the raft, though Laddie had fallen off. "We'll make it bigger,
Laddie, and then I can ride on it."

"Maybe we both can," said Laddie, who got up out of the water, and waded
to shore.

"No, I guess the two of us would be too heavy for Zip to pull. We'll take
turns," said Russ. "Come on, we'll make a bigger raft. There's lots of
wood out by the barn."

And so the boys did. Russ was stronger than Laddie, and could handle
bigger boar