g
grapevine. Then, if I had a rope----"

"Shall I run and get one?" demanded Sister, listening to him.

"Hullo!" exclaimed Hiram, speaking to the man in the boat.

"Well?" asked the fellow.

"Haven't you got a coil of strong rope aboard?"

"There's the painter," said the man.

"Toss it ashore here," commanded Hiram.

"Oh, Hiram Strong!" cried Lettie. "You don't expect us to walk
tightrope, do you?" and she began to giggle.

"No. I want you to unfasten the end of the rope. I want it clear--that's
it," said Hiram. "And it's long enough, I can see."

"For what?" asked Sister.

"Wait and you'll see," returned the young farmer, hastily coiling the
rope again.

He hung it over his shoulder and then started to climb the big sycamore.
He could go up the bole of this leaning tree very quickly, for the huge
grapevine gave him a hand-hold all the way.

"Whatever are you going to do?" cried Lettie Bronson, looking up at him,
as did the other girls.

"Now," said Hiram, in the first small crotch of the tree, which was
almost directly over the stranded launch, "if you girls have any pluck
at all, I can get you ashore, one by one."

"What do you mean for us to do, Hiram?" repeated Lettie.

The young farmer quickly fashioned a noose at the end of the line--not a
slipnoose, for that would tighten and hurt anybody bearing upon it. This
he dropped down to the boat and Lettie caught it.

"Get your head and shoulders through that noose, Miss Bronson," he
commanded. "Let it come under your arms. I will lift you out of the boat
and swing you back and forth--there's none of you so heavy that I can't
do this, and if you wet your feet a little, what's the odds?"

"Oh, dear! I can never do that!" squealed one of the other girls.

"Guess you'll have to do it if you don't want to stay here all night,"
returned Lettie, promptly. "I see what you want, Hiram," she added, and
quickly adjusted the loop.

"Now, when you swing out over the bank, Sister will grab you, and steady
you. It will be all right if you have a care. Now!" cried Hiram.

Lettie Bronson showed no fear at all as he drew her up and she swung
out of the boat over the swiftly-running current. Hiram laid along the
tree-trunk in an easy position, and began swinging the girl at the end
of the rope, like a pendulum.

The river bank being at least three feet higher than the surface of the
water; he did not have to shift the rope again as he swung the girl back
and for