was halfway over, he had to continue or leave Dot alone on the
raft. That was entirely out of his plans, so he used his pole to push
himself over as near to the large ice-floe as possible. The cake of ice
he was on was small enough to be submerged every time Don pushed his
pole against anything, and by the time he was able to jump on the large
ice-floe his feet and legs were soaking wet again. Once up on the large
floe, Don felt relieved for a fear had assailed him when he found he
couldn't jump the small cakes.

"Push the raft over to me--I can't make this floe budge!" called Don.

So Dot shoved the pole against a mass of ice and moved the raft over
toward Don's floe. As soon as he could jump, he came on the raft and the
two felt better for being together.

"I'm hungry, aren't you?" said Don, taking the lunch from his pockets.

"Yes; let's have lunch now, and play river-men after," returned Dot.

As they sat munching the lunch the motion of the wavelets under the
raft, dancing it up and down, made them laugh.

The ice-floe stuck close to them after Don jumped from it, and they
never noticed that the floe and raft were slowly floating out from
shore.

A sudden jar of the raft against another huge ice-floe that came down
stream made them take notice of their greater distance from shore.

"Gee! Dot, we have floated out more'n ten feet from the bank!" said Don,
looking about doubtfully.

"So we have! We'd better pole back again," said Dot.

Without another word, both children tried to pole back, but they were
working against the current that had begun to take hold of the ice-floe
and raft.

The ice-floe was so deep down in the water that the current that ran
underneath drew it along. But the raft being on the surface was not so
easily carried. Don thought for a few seconds.

"Dot, if we try to push that floe off we won't be dragged along with it.
She's doin' all the mischief!"

So both children turned their effort to shoving off the ice-floe and
soon succeeded in moving it beyond the reach of the poles. As they
watched it being caught gradually by the river current, Don whispered
to his sister.

"Now, let's get back as quickly as we can!"

But the poles were too short now to touch bottom, and there were no ice
cakes about to offer the necessary resistance.

"What now?" asked Dot, looking at Don with full understanding of their
dangerous position.

"What would you advise?" said Don, looking at the dark