can sit!"

"So straight!" and Gladys emphasised her straightness by putting both
arms up in the air.

"Yes, dear. Now fold your arms and sit straight."

Gladys obeyed and folded her chubby arms and sat motionless right in the
middle of the canoe.

Dolly's heart bounded with thankfulness as with aching arms she pushed
her way nearer the drifting canoe. She was moving stern first and tried
to manoeuvre to try to come up sideways against the canoe. Then if she
could lift the baby safely into her own flat-bottomed boat she would be
content to drift about until help came.

How many times she tried! But just as her boat would near the other, a
chance current or a puff of wind would take the canoe just out of her
reach. Paddling now with one oar she came very near the unsteady little
craft, so near that Gladys suddenly decided to jump into Dolly's boat.

The child scrambled to her knees and leaned over the side of the canoe
till she was almost in the water.

"Sit down!" screamed Dolly frantically, forgetting the danger of
suddenness.

Gladys was startled and instead of sitting down leaned farther over the
edge, and the canoe capsized!

Dolly's face blanched, her oars dropped from her hands and every muscle
in her body went limp. Then the impulse came to jump in the water after
the child. Seizing the row-lock, she was about to plunge, blindly,
heedlessly, but obeying the irresistible impulse, when something white
appeared on the water, right at her very side. It was Gladys's white
dress, and Dolly made a grab for it just as it was again about to sink
from sight.

She held on firmly, though it seemed as if her strength was ebbing
rapidly away.

She strove with all her might to pull the baby into her own boat, but
she could not lift the heavy child over the edge. How glad she was now
that she was in the big flat-bottomed boat, which was in little if any
danger of upsetting.

Not knowing whether the baby was dead or alive, she hung on to the
precious burden, still trying to lift her over the edge, but unable to
do so. It was all she could do to keep her grasp on the wet clothing and
keep the child's head above water as the eddies tossed her boat around
on the rough surface of the lake. The waves were choppy and every time
she would nearly succeed in lifting the baby in, a sudden lurch would
almost make her lose her grip.

It was when at last she almost felt the little form slipping from her
grasp that she heard t