.

"If she only holds we'll be all right," said Mr. Brown, his hand still
on the rope.

The automobile moved a little bit farther, as the rope stretched, and
then it stopped altogether, and Mr. Brown tied tighter the end of the
rope that was about the tree.

"Anchored at last!" cried Uncle Tad, as he got ready to go inside the
car. "Now let it rain and flood as much as it likes."

"Are we all right?" asked Bunny as his father and his Uncle Tad came in.

"We won't go out to sea, will we?" Sue questioned.

"No indeed, to your question, Sue," answered her father. "And as to
yours, Bunny, we are anchored safe and sound I hope. Now we can go back
to bed and sleep."

But first Bunny and Sue had to ask many questions, and Sue had to take
off her Teddy bear's water-proof cloak, in spite of which the toy was
wet.

"But it won't hurt her batteries inside or her eyes," said the little
girl.

"And as for her fur, that will soon dry," added Mother Brown.

"She gave us good light," said Father Brown. "Now, off to bed with you."

No one slept very much the rest of the night except the children and the
dogs. Dix and Splash did not think of worrying, and as for Bunny Brown
and his Sister Sue, they thought that whatever Daddy Brown and Uncle Tad
did was just right anyhow. So they had no fear.

Mrs. Brown, her husband, and Uncle Tad did not sleep very soundly,
however. The rain still came down in torrents and the wind blew hard.
The rush of the flood beneath the auto could still be heard. But it came
no higher.

The rope held to the tree, the big car did not drag, and when morning
came the travelers found themselves some distance from the place where
they had been the evening before. They were about a mile down the road,
and all about them, over the road and the adjacent fields, was a lake of
water.

But it was not raining so hard now. The storm seemed to be about over.
The water was going down, Mr. Brown said, and when Bunny, at the
breakfast table, asked how his father knew, Mr. Brown pointed to a fence
not far from the tree to which they were tied.

"Do you see the muddy marks and the bits of leaves and grass caught on
the fence?" asked Mr. Brown.

"I see," said Bunny.

"Well, that shows how high the water got," explained his father. "You
see the top of the water is below that now, which shows that the flood
is going down. And I am glad enough of it."

"So am I," said Mrs. Brown. "We've had water enough for once