atter?" she cried. "What's happened?"

"I--I'm caught!" he answered. "Can't you see I'm caught?"

"But how?" she questioned eagerly. "You aren't caught in a trap like
Snap was, are you?"

"No, it isn't a trap--it's sticky mud," Freddie said. "My feet are stuck
in the mud!"

"Oh--oh!" said Flossie, and a queer look came over her face. "You are
stuck in the mud! How did you do it, Freddie?"

"I didn't do it! It did it! I just stepped in a soft place, and now
when I pull one foot out the other sticks in deeper. Can't you help me
out, Flossie?"

"Yes, I'll help you out!" she cried, and she ran down to the edge of the
stream, as though she intended to wade out to where poor Freddie was
trying to pull his feet loose from the sticky mud.

"Oh, don't come in! Don't come in!" cried Freddie, waving her back with
his hand. "You'll be stuck, too!"

Flossie stood still on the edge of the little brook. She looked at
Freddie, who was in the middle of the stream, too far out for Flossie to
reach with her outstretched hands, though she tried to do so.

"Can't you pull your feet out?" she asked.

"Nope!" answered Freddie. "I can't, for I've tried. As soon as I get one
foot up a little way the other goes down in deeper."

"Then I'll go and call mamma!"

"No, don't do that!" begged Freddie. "Maybe if you would get a long
stick, Flossie, and hold it out to me, I could sort of pull myself
out."

"Oh, I know. It's like the picture in my story book of the boy who fell
through the ice, and his sister held out a long pole to him and he
pulled himself out. Wait a minute, Freddie, and I'll get the stick. I'm
glad you didn't fall through the ice, though, 'cause you'd get cold
maybe."

"This water is nice and warm," said Freddie. "But I don't like the mud
I'm stuck in, 'cause it makes me feel so tickly between the toes."

"I'll help you out," said Flossie. "Wait a minute."

She searched about on the bank until she found a long smooth branch of a
tree. Holding to one end of this she held the other end out to her
brother. Freddie had to turn half around to get hold of it as his back
was toward Flossie, and she could not cross the brook.

"Now hold tight!" cried the little boy. "I'm going to pull!"

Flossie braced her feet in the sand on the bank of the brook and her
brother began to pull himself out of the mud. His feet had sunk down to
quite a depth, and when he first pulled he made Flossie slide along the
ground until she crie