ame time, pointing to something on the water. Mrs. Bunker
looked at what Russ was pointing to and saw that it was Cousin Tom's
smaller rowboat, and, also, that in it were her two little children, Mun
Bun and Margy!
And the boat was being carried by the tide down the inlet toward the
sea. The inlet, when the tide was flowing in or out, was like a powerful
river, more powerful in its current than Rainbow River at home in
Pineville, where the six little Bunkers lived.
"Oh, Margy! Mun Bun!" cried Mrs. Bunker, holding out her hands to the
children.
"Oh, what will happen to them?" went on Mother Bunker, as she reached
Russ standing near the edge of the inlet. She could see the boat, with
Margy and Mun Bun in it, drifting farther and farther away. "Oh, I must
get them!"
Mrs. Bunker was just about to rush into the water, all dressed as she
was. She had an idea she might wade out and get hold of the boat to
bring it back. But the inlet was too deep for that.
"Wait a minute! Don't go into the water, Mother! We'll get the children
back all right!" cried Daddy Bunker, as he ran up beside his wife and
caught her by the arm.
"How?" asked Mrs. Bunker, clinging to her husband.
"We'll go after them in another boat," said Mr. Bunker. "Here comes
Cousin Tom. He and I will go after the children in the other boat. You
sit down and wait for us. We'll soon have them back!"
Cousin Tom had two boats tied at the pier in the inlet. One was the
large one in which they had gone crabbing a few days before, and the
other was the small one in which Margy and Mun Bun had gone drifting
away.
Daddy Bunker, left his wife sitting on the sand and ran to loosen the
large boat. But Cousin Tom cried:
"Don't take that. It will be too slow and too heavy to row."
"What shall we take?" asked the children's father.
"Here comes a motor-boat. I'll hail the man in that and ask him to go
after the drifting boat for us," Cousin Tom answered.
"All right," agreed Mr. Bunker, as he looked up and saw coming down the
inlet, or Clam River, a speedy motor-boat, in which sat a man. This
would be much faster than a rowboat.
Just then Mrs. Bunker, who had jumped up from the sand where she had
been sitting for a moment, and who was running toward her husband,
cried:
"Oh, see! The children are standing up! Oh, if they should fall
overboard!"
Margy and Mun Bun, who, at first, had been sitting down in the drifting
boat, were now seen to be standi
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