Everything was watery, cool, and unsteady. Laura felt very light. Her feet were so light that they almost lifted off the creek bottom. She hopped, and splashed with her arms.
“Oo, Laura, don’t!” Mary cried.
“Don’t go in any farther, Laura,” said Ma.
Laura kept on splashing. One big splash lifted both feet. Her feet came up, her arms did as they pleased, her head went under the water. She was scared. There was nothing to hold on to, nothing solid anywhere. Then she was standing up, streaming water all over. But her feet were solid.
Nobody had seen that. Mary was tucking up her skirts, Ma was playing with Carrie. Pa was out of sight among the willows. Laura walked as fast as she could in the water. She stepped down deeper and deeper. The water came up past her middle, up to her arms.
Suddenly, deep down in the water, something grabbed her foot.
The thing jerked, and down she went into the deep water. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t see. She grabbed and could not get hold of anything. Water filled her ears and her eyes and her mouth.
Then her head came out of the water close to Pa’s head. Pa was holding her.
“Well, young lady,” Pa said, “you went out too far, and how did you like it?”
Laura could not speak; she had to breathe.
“You heard Ma tell you to stay close to the bank,” said Pa. “Why didn’t you obey her? You deserved a ducking, and I ducked you. Next time you’ll do as you’re told.”
“Y-yes, Pa!” Laura spluttered. “Oh, Pa, p-please do it again!”
Pa said, “Well, I’ll—!” Then his great laughter rang among the willow
s.
“Why didn’t you holler when I ducked you?” he asked Laura. “Weren’t you scared?”
“I w-was—awful scared!” Laura gasped. “But p-please do it again!” Then she asked him, “How did you get down there, Pa?”
Pa told her he had swum under water from the willows. But they could not stay in the deep water; they must go near the bank and play with Mary.
All that afternoon Pa and Laura and Mary played in the water. They waded and they fought water fights, and whenever Laura or Mary went near the deep water, Pa ducked them. Mary was a good girl after one ducking, but Laura was ducked many times.
Then it was almost chore time and they had to go home. They went dripping along the path through the tall grass, and when they came to the tableland Laura wanted to climb it.
Pa climbed part way up, and Laura and Mary climbed, holding to his hands. The dry dirt slipped and slid. Tangled grass roots hung down from the bulging edge overhead. Then Pa lifted Laura up and set her on the tableland.
It really was like a table. That ground rose up high above the tall grasses, and it was round, and flat on top. The grass there was short and soft.
Pa and Laura and Mary stood up on top of that tableland, and looked over the grass tops and the pool to the prairie beyond. They looked all around at prairies stretching to the rim of the sky.
Then they had to slide down again to the lowland and go on home. That had been a wonderful afternoon.
“It’s been lots of fun,” Pa said. “But you girls remember what I tell you. Don’t you ever go near that swimming-hole unless I am with you.
Chapter 5
Strange Animal
All the next day Laura remembered. She remembered the cool, deep water in the shade of the tall willows. She remembered that she must not go near it.
Pa was away. Mary stayed with Ma in the dugout. Laura played all alone in the hot sunshine. The blue flags were withering among the dull rushes. She went past the willow valley and played in the prairie grasses among the black-eyed Susans and goldenrod. The sunshine was very hot and the wind was scorching.
Then Laura thought of the tableland. She wanted to climb it again. She wondered if she could climb it all by herself. Pa had not said that she could not go to the tableland.
She ran down the steep bank and went across the lowland, through the tall, coarse grasses. The tableland stood up straight and high. It was very hard to climb. The dry earth slid under Laura’s feet, her dress was dirty where her knees dug in while she held on to the grasses and pulled herself up. Dust itched on her sweaty skin. But at last she got her stomach on the edge; she heaved and rolled and she was on top of the tableland.