r?"

"Yes, my boy, I think I've heard you _roar_," replied Abner, with a
provoking smile.

"Well, can't I row her this way?"

"Middlin' well," returned Abner, cautiously; "but little Sue, here, is
the water-man for me."

Susy's cheeks glowed, and there was a proud flash in her eyes as they
met Lonnie's. At that moment she felt equal to the task of steering a
ship across the Atlantic Ocean.

Not long after this praise from Abner, aunt Martha said that she and
Master Lonnie were going over the river, after some wild-flower roots,
and would be glad to have the boat sent for them at five o'clock.

"Mayn't I be the one to go?" asked Susy.

"If you like," replied the grandmother; "that is, if Abner is willing."

Susy knew perfectly well that her grandmother had no idea of allowing
her to go alone; but it so happened, when she reached the river-bank
with the boat-key, that Abner was nowhere to be seen.

"Seems to me," thought Susy, "Abner is generally somewhere else."

"Where you goin', all alone, 'thout me?" cried Dotty Dimple, from the
top of the bank.

"You here? What did you come for?" said Susy.

For answer, Dotty took a pair of rubber overshoes out of Zip's mouth.

"Grandma says to put 'em right on, or you'll catch the hookin' cough;
the boat's wet."

"There, now," said Susy, putting on the rubbers, "I've forgot the basket
for those Jack-in-the-pulpit roots. Didn't grandma send it up?"

"No, she sended up _me_," replied Dotty; adding, quickly, "and I'm goin'
where you go, you know; and if you don't go anywhere, I'm goin' there,
too."

"That's just the way it is with you, Dotty Dimple; always coming when I
don't expect you."

"Prudy coaxed me to," said Dotty, with one of her sweetest smiles and
deepest dimples.

"Coaxed you?"

"Well," faltered Dotty, "she wanted to come her own self. She said she
wished I'd stay to home,--so, _of course_ I camed!"

"I'll tell you how it is," said Susy, thoughtfully. "That queer old
Abner's nowhere to be seen. I suppose he's in the cornfield, or the
meadow, or the barn. It's after five; and what will aunt Martha think? I
could row across the river well enough by myself, if you'd only run
home; you're _such_ a bother!"

"O, my darlin' sister Susy! I won't do nothin' but just sit still. Who's
your precious comfort?"

"Well, I don't know but I'll take you, then. Come, little Miss Trouble,
jump into the boat."

So Dotty Dimple, being what Mr. Allen had called a "