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