After supper was over, it was about seven o'clock, and Uncle Charlie told his young guests that they could ramble round for half an hour, and then they would start on their homeward ride. The path by the side of the lake was a very pretty one, and Mrs. Elliott and her husband walked along there with little Gilbert between them. The child was getting sleepy and a little wilful; and while Jane, his nurse, was eating her supper, his parents had him in charge. Soon they heard Frank's voice calling, "Father, won't you please come here a minute and help us get this swing down?" Mr. Elliott went to help the boys, and Mrs. Elliott and Gilbert sat down on the grassy bank to await his return. "Mamma," said the child, "shall I pick you some pretty flowers?" "Yes, baby," said his mother, who was looking at the sunset, and only half listening, "but don't go far away." "No," said the little fellow, and how it happened, Mrs. Elliott never knew, but seemingly in a moment, Gilbert had climbed into a boat and was afloat alone on the lake. For an instant Mrs. Elliott was too frightened even to scream; and then, she dared not, for the boat was a little, round-bottomed affair, and Gilbert was jumping about in it so excitedly, that if suddenly startled he might upset the boat. With great presence of mind his mother spoke to him gently. "Gilbert, dear," she said, "sit down in the middle of the boat, and be quiet until I call papa, will you? There's a good boy." "I am a good boy," Gilbert called back; "I'm going to get mamma pretty pink pond-flowers." The boat was drifting farther and farther out, and the child sitting in the bow, rocked it from one side to the other. "Gilbert," said his mother, sternly, "sit right down in the bottom of the boat. Right in the middle, do you hear? Obey me at once!" "Yes, mamma," said the boy, and he did as she told him to, but continued to rock the boat, so though the danger was lessened, it was still a frightful scene, and filled the poor mother's heart with terror. "Charlie, Charlie," she called, and then "Frank," but they could not hear her as they were taking down some hammocks in another part of the grove. The boat drifted nearer to the pond-lilies, and Mrs. Elliott saw Gilbert lean over the side of the boat. "Now I'll get them for you, mamma," he called. Mrs. Elliott could scarcely hear his words, but she saw,--the boat overturn and her darling child fall into the deep lake. CHAPTER XX THE RESCUE When Mrs. Elliott called to her husband and son, they could not hear her, but her cries were heard by a small group of half-a-dozen boys and girls, who were walking along the shore of the lake at some distance ahead of her. Patty and Marian were in this group, and at the sound of her mother's frightened cry, Marian turned pale, and said, "Oh, Patty, something dreadful has happened; let us run to mother." But one of the boys said, "Look out on the lake! There's your little brother in a boat, all alone."