AT THE FIRE
Holding the Teddy bear so the light from its eyes shone all about, the
two men stood on the back steps of the automobile and looked around
them.
All about was swiftly running water. The evening before, in coming to a
stop for the night, Mr. Brown had noticed, not far away from their
camping place, a small stream. Behind it were some high hills or small
mountains, but, though the storm was a hard one, no one thought the
little brook would turn into such a river.
"But that's what it's done," said Uncle Tad. "It's risen so high that
it's covered the side of the road near where we were, and it's floated
us off."
"Yes. I fear we'll soon be flooded inside."
Bunny, listening at the outer door of the big car, heard above the noise
of the flood and the rain, his father say this. For a moment he was
frightened, then he happened to think:
"Well, I've got rubber boots, and if the water comes in here I can wade
around and get things. But I guess I won't tell Sue and Momsie about it.
They might be scared."
Bunny Brown was a brave little chap when it came to something like this.
In fact he had shown his bravery more than once, as those of you who
have read the other books about him and his sister well know.
Out on the steps of the automobile, with the glaring eyes of Sue's Teddy
bear to let them see what was going on, Mr. Brown and Uncle Tad again
looked about.
They could see the rain coming down hard, and on both sides of them was
what seemed to be a big river of water. Many little brooks in the
mountains, joining together, had made such a big stream that it had
shoved along the heavy auto.
"It can't shove us very far, I think," said Mr. Brown. "We are too heavy
for that. But it might tip us over, this water might, or send us into a
ditch out of which we would have a hard time to climb. I'd like to
anchor fast, if I could."
"Why don't you tie fast to a tree?" asked Uncle Tad. "We have the heavy
towing rope with us."
"I guess that's a good idea," said Mr. Brown. "We are being swept along
the road and there are plenty of trees on either side."
Bunny Brown was not listening at the door any longer. His mother had
called him and Sue to the dining-room table and given them some bread
and milk to eat. She thought this would take their attention off the
trouble they were in. For that there was trouble Mrs. Brown was sure.
Otherwise her husband and Uncle Tad would not have stayed so long
outside looking about in the wind and the rain.
"Yes," said Mr. Brown, after once more looking about with the aid of the
lights from the eyes of Sue's Teddy bear. "We had best try to fasten the
auto to some tree. Then we'll be held fast, for I do not believe the
flood will reach much higher. I have heard of high water in this part of
the country, but it never gets much higher than this, if I remember
rightly."
"I'll go in for the rope," said Uncle Tad, "and we'll try to make fast
to some tree. We'll be lucky if we can do it before we run into
something," and he opened the door.
"Oh, what is the matter?"
"What has happened?"
"Tell us all about it!"
This is what Mrs. Brown, Bunny and Sue said as Uncle Tad, dripping wet,
came back into the auto. Dix and Splash thumped their tails on the
floor, as though also asking what the matter was.
"Oh, it isn't much," said Uncle Tad. "The brook rose into a river in the
night, and tried to carry us away. But we are going to anchor to a tree
until morning."
Bunny and Sue could easily understand what this meant, and they were not
frightened, even though the automobile swayed about from side to side
and bumped as a boat does when it goes over the bottom in shallow water.
Uncle Tad got the towrope out from a box, or locker, as Mr. Brown called
it. The rope was a strong one, as it was intended to be used in case
the big automobile went into a ditch, in which event it could be pulled
out.
With the rope Uncle Tad went out on the back steps again.
"We're still moving," said Mr. Brown.
"Are we any nearer the trees, so it will be easier to catch hold of one
of them with a loop of the rope?" asked Uncle Tad.
"No, we're farther off from the trees," said Bunny's father and, if the
little boy had been listening, he would have felt worried about this.
But Mr. Brown was a good sailor, and if he knew how to anchor, or make
fast, a boat in a big ocean, he might be supposed to know how to anchor,
or stop, an automobile in a flood on the road.
Mr. Brown took the rope, while Uncle Tad held the Teddy bear and flashed
her eyes about on the flood that was moving the car along. Bunny's
father was trying to catch sight of a tree around a limb of which he
could cast the rope and so bring the drifting automobile to a stop. It
was not moving quite so fast now, as the stream was not quite so swift.
In fact if the flooded stream had not been so swift it never could have
carried the heavy auto along at all.
"I suppose," said Mr. Brown, "I could start the motor and make the car
go itself. But I would not know where to steer her."
"No, it is better to make her fast, I think," said Uncle Tad.
Just then they passed under a tree. Mr. Brown tried to catch the rope to
it, but the auto rolled past too quickly.
"Better luck next time," he said.
Presently they were swept under another tree, and this time, as Mr.
Brown cast the rope, it whirled about a big limb and was held fast. The
other end had been tied to the automobile near the back door and now the
big car came to a slow stop.
"If she only holds we'll be all right," said Mr. Brown, his hand still
on the rope.
The automobile moved a little bit farther, as the rope stretched, and
then it stopped altogether, and Mr. Brown tied tighter the end of the
rope that was about the tree.
"Anchored at last!" cried Uncle Tad, as he got ready to go inside the
car. "Now let it rain and flood as much as it likes."
"Are we all right?" asked Bunny as his father and his Uncle Tad came in.
"We won't go out to sea, will we?" Sue questioned.
"No indeed, to your question, Sue," answered her father. "And as to
yours, Bunny, we are anchored safe and sound I hope. Now we can go back
to bed and sleep."
But first Bunny and Sue had to ask many questions, and Sue had to take
off her Teddy bear's water-proof cloak, in spite of which the toy was
wet.
"But it won't hurt her batteries inside or her eyes," said the little
girl.
"And as for her fur, that will soon dry," added Mother Brown.
"She gave us good light," said Father Brown. "Now, off to bed with you."
No one slept very much the rest of the night except the children and the
dogs. Dix and Splash did not think of worrying, and as for Bunny Brown
and his Sister Sue, they thought that whatever Daddy Brown and Uncle Tad
did was just right anyhow. So they had no fear.
Mrs. Brown, her husband, and Uncle Tad did not sleep very soundly,
however. The rain still came down in torrents and the wind blew hard.
The rush of the flood beneath the auto could still be heard. But it came
no higher.
The rope held to the tree, the big car did not drag, and when morning
came the travelers found themselves some distance from the place where
they had been the evening before. They were about a mile down the road,
and all about them, over the road and the adjacent fields, was a lake of
water.
But it was not raining so hard now. The storm seemed to be about over.
The water was going down, Mr. Brown said, and when Bunny, at the
breakfast table, asked how his father knew, Mr. Brown pointed to a fence
not far from the tree to which they were tied.
"Do you see the muddy marks and the bits of leaves and grass caught on
the fence?" asked Mr. Brown.
"I see," said Bunny.
"Well, that shows how high the water got," explained his father. "You
see the top of the water is below that now, which shows that the flood
is going down. And I am glad enough of it."
"So am I," said Mrs. Brown. "We've had water enough for once."
The storm had been such a heavy one that it could not last long, and by
noon the sun was out. But it would take some time for the flood to go
down and the roads to dry up.
"We'll probably stay here three days," said Mr. Brown. "It looks like a
nice place, and we have plenty to eat. We'll stay and let things dry
out. Traveling on a muddy, slippery road, with a heavy automobile like
this, is not safe. We'll wait a while."
Anything suited Bunny and Sue as long as they were seeing or having
something new. And when the rain stopped their mother let them put on
their rubber boots and wade where the water was not too deep.
After wading about awhile, Bunny thought of something to do.
"Let's make a raft!" he said to Sue.
"Oh, that will be fun!" she cried.
Sue knew what a raft was from living near the seashore. Many times she
and her brother had made them, and they had often heard stories of
sailors coming ashore from wrecks on rafts. Rafts are flat boards, or
planks, nailed or tied together, and they will float on top of the water
and carry a number of people, though they are so low that the water
washes over them and wets one's feet.
This last part Bunny and Sue did not mind, for they had on rubber boots.
They quickly made a raft by collecting some boards and logs that had
come down with the flood, and had caught in the fence corner near which
their auto was anchored.
Uncle Tad helped them nail the boards together, and then Bunny and Sue
floated the raft over into a little rain-water lake in the middle of a
field and began shoving it about with long poles. They had ridden up and
down one side of the little lake, stopping at places on the "shore," to
which they gave the names of sea-coast towns near their home.
"Now we'll go across to the other side," said Sue.
But when she and Bunny had the raft about in the middle of the "lake,"
it stuck fast, because the water was not deep enough just there.
"Push!" cried Bunny. "Push hard, Sue!"
Sue pushed so hard that, all of a sudden, her pole broke, and she fell
off the raft into the water.
"Oh dear!" she cried. "Oh dear!"
For a moment Bunny did not know what to do. Then he saw that the water
was not more than up to Sue's knees and he knew she would not drown.
But, as she had fallen in backwards, she was wet from top to toe. Sue
began to cry as she got up, choking and gasping, for she had swallowed a
little water.
"Don't cry!" begged Bunny. "Let's pretend you're a swimmer on the beach
and went out too far."
"Wha-what good would that do, me pre-pre-tendin' that?" half-sobbed Sue.
"Well, then I'll pretend I'm a life-guard, and I'll swim out and pull
you to shore," said Bunny.
By this time Sue had managed to stand up firmly on her feet, though she
was very wet.
"There's no use in you're pretending you're a life-guard and getting all
wet like me, when I can just as well get on the raft myself," said Sue
practically.
"Oh, I want to be a life-guard," said Bunny. "Here I come!" and with
that he jumped off the raft feet first, landing near Sue with a splash.
"Oh, now you've got _yourself_ all wet, for it went over your boots,"
said the little girl. "Mother will scold."
"Well, now I can take half the scolding, for I'm half as wet as you,"
said Bunny. "Anyhow she won't scold much. For you couldn't help falling
in, Sue, and she'll be glad I pretended to be a life-guard to help you
out." With that he put Sue on the raft again.
By this time the raft had floated free of the little hill of mud in the
meadow lake where it had gone aground, and Bunny and Sue poled it
toward the road. When their mother saw how wet they were she did not
scold them. That is, not much. For, after all, part of it could not be
helped.
Dix and Splash enjoyed the flood, for they both liked to be in the
water. They swam about, playing their sort of "tag" and racing after
sticks which Bunny and Sue threw for them.
A few days after this, when the flood had all gone down, and having
waited for the roads to dry, Mr. Brown once more set off with his family
in the big machine. For two or three days they traveled along. Once,
when they stopped for their noon-day lunch under a big oak tree, Uncle
Tad built a small fire of twigs and Bunny and his sister roasted
marshmallows at the blaze.
At a number of places Mr. Brown asked about Fred Ward, the missing boy,
but no trace of him could be found, nor was anything more heard of the
traveling medicine show with the colored banjo player.
It was one evening at dusk, when the automobile had come to a stop for
the night, and the family were all sitting out under the tree near the
road, that Uncle Tad, looking down the highway, said:
"Isn't that a fire over there?" He pointed toward a neighboring
farmhouse.
"Do you mean a campfire or a bonfire?" asked Bunny.
"Neither one. I mean a real fire," said Uncle Tad.
"It is a fire!" suddenly cried Mr. Brown. "A shed near that barn is
blazing. See the men running to put it out!"
"We'd better go to help," said Uncle Tad.
"Let us come, too!" begged Bunny and Sue.