. They looked very much bedraggled, but they were laughing
and did not seem to mind what had happened.

Next the two young men scrambled up, pulling themselves by means of the
ropes from the life buoys. And last of all came Bunker Blue. He had the
rope of the smashed and overturned canoe in one hand and was towing it
along as he swam slowly. It was not easy work to drag the canoe through
the water, submerged as it was, but Bunker did it, fastening the canoe
rope to the rail of the _Fairy_.

Then he scrambled up on deck, shook the water from his face and hair,
and said:

"I'll get a boat hook and fish up the paddles. They're floating around
down there."

"Oh, don't bother," urged one of the young ladies. "It was all my fault.
I steered the canoe right in your way. We ran into you--you didn't run
into us."

"Well, I'm glad you feel that way about it," said Captain Ross, while
Bunny and Sue watched the little puddles and streams of water dripping
from the recent occupants of the canoe and from Bunker Blue.

"Is the canoe worth saving?" asked Mr. Brown, as he looked down to
where it now floated at the side of the _Fairy_, held fast by the line
Bunker had brought on board.

"I don't think so," said one of the young men. "It was an old one, and
now the side is stove in. Let it go. It will drift ashore anyhow, and we
can get it later if we want to. You might save the paddles if you can.
I'll help," he offered.

"I'll help," offered the other young man, and while these two, with
Bunker, sought to save the paddles with boat hooks, the broken canoe was
cast loose from the _Fairy_ and allowed to drift off.

"If you'll come down to the cabin with me," said Mrs. Brown to the young
ladies, "I'll see if I can lend you some other clothes while yours are
drying."

"Oh, don't bother!" said one of the young ladies. "It was all just fun.
We had on old clothes, for we half expected to be upset before we got
back."

But Mrs. Brown insisted on making them change, and so she led them down
into the cabin. Uncle Tad helped in the work of recovering the paddles,
and then he suggested that the two young men might also like to take off
their wet things.

"Oh, not at all," said one. "We're used to being wet. And we'll soon
dry, anyhow. It was very decent of you to jump in after us," he said to
Bunker. "As it happens, we can all swim pretty well, and it isn't the
first time we've been upset. But I was afraid one of the girls might
ha