had better
stay here and help them?"

"Oh, I don't see anything _we_ can do," answered Splash. At least it
_seemed_ as if he spoke that way. "Let's keep on playing tag."

And so the two dogs raced away.

"We do seem to be in a fix," remarked Mr. Brown as he came as near as he
could to the back of the automobile without getting into the ditch.

"What _can_ we do?" asked Mrs. Brown, and her voice was anxious.

"We'll soon see," answered her husband. "In the first place you had all
better get out of the car. I don't know how long it may stand upright.
It may topple over if the water washes away more mud from under one
wheel than from under another, and you'll be better out than in."

"But how are we going to _get_ out?" asked Bunny. "The back steps are
all under water!"

And so they were. When the bridge broke with the automobile the front
wheels were off the wooden planks and on the road beyond, and the rear
wheels went down when the bridge broke in the middle. So the "Ark" was
standing as though it had come to a sudden stop going up a steep hill,
at the bottom of which was a brook. The rear wheels, and all but the top
one of the back steps were under water.

"You can crawl out over the front seat," said Mr. Brown. "From there you
can easily get down to the ground if Uncle Tad and I help you. Then,
Mother, you might try your hand at getting a lunch, for it will soon be
noon, while Uncle Tad and I see what we can do about getting the
automobile out of the ditch."

"It will be some fun after all," said Bunny as he crawled out over the
front seat. "We can picnic alongside the road, Sue, and watch Daddy and
Uncle Tad get the car out."

"Yes," said Bunny's sister. "And maybe I'll make a pie for you and
Sallie Malinda."

"No, I guess I wouldn't try a pie to-day," said Mrs. Brown with a smile.
"We won't be able to use any stove except the small oil one, out on the
ground, and that will cook only a few things. We'll wait for the pie
until the auto is safe on the road again."

"I hope we can get it out of the ditch without breaking anything," said
Mr. Brown, as he helped his wife and children down the high front steps
of the big car, and then lifted out the oil stove, and other things that
would be needed for the lunch.

"Do you think there is any danger?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"A little," answered her husband. "But at least none of us can be hurt,
and the worst that can happen will be a little damage to our car."