“Oh, can you get out? Can you get out?” howled Prince, standing on the bank of the puddle and looking at his brother. It was not a very large puddle, but it was pretty big for a little puppy dog.
“I――I guess so! I’m trying hard!” whined Don, paddling with his paws faster than ever.
Prince, sitting on the bank of the puddle of water, was howling as loudly as he could.
“Are you getting out, Don? Are you getting out?” asked Prince.
“Well, I――I’m trying hard!” answered Don. “I guess――glub――blulp――gurg!” and then he could not say anything more, even in dog language, for his mouth was full of water.
Don did not have any time to answer him. He was too busy swimming.
Nearer and nearer to the bank of the puddle, off which he had slipped into the water, swam Don. He was soon so close that he could put his paws on the firm earth, and then he knew he was safe, and could crawl out.
But oh! What a sorrowful looking sight poor Don was. His nice, clean coat was covered with muddy water, which dripped down and ran from him in little puddles.
“Oh, how are you ever going to get dry?” asked Prince.
Then Don happened to remember how once he had seen his mother out in a rain storm. She came to the kennel quite wet, but before she went in she shook herself very hard, and the water drops flew off her in a shower.
“That’s what I’ll do,” thought Don. So he gave himself as big and as hard a shake as he could, and the water flew about in a shower.
“Hi! Stop! You’re getting me wet!” howled Prince.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to,” answered Don. “But that’s the way I get dry. You asked me that, you know.”
“Yes, but I didn’t know you were going to put the water on me,” Prince replied. “I don’t care, though, as long as you’re safe,” and he went up to his brother, and kissed him on his nose with his little red tongue, Prince did, in a way dogs have.
So Don got safely out of the puddle into which he had fallen, but his adventures for that day were not yet at an end.
“Let’s go home,” said Prince. “I’m hungry.”
“So am I,” spoke Don. “But which way is home?”
The two little puppy dogs looked one at the other.
“Oh, I forgot!” cried Don. “Don’t you remember, we were lost just before I fell in the puddle, and we’re lost yet. Oh dear!”