"Oh, wait a minute! Wait a minute!" suddenly called Vi. "Is there any
water around your steamboat, Russ?"

"Water? 'Course there is," he answered. "You couldn't make a steamboat go
without water."

"Is it deep water?" asked Vi, who seemed started on her favorite game of
asking questions.

Russ thought for a minute, looking at the playroom floor.

"'Course it's deep," he answered. "'Bout ten miles deep. What do you ask
that for, Vi?"

"'Cause I got to get a bathing-dress for my doll," answered the little
girl. "I can't take her on a steamboat where the water is deep lessen I
have a bathing-suit for her. Wait a minute. I'll get one," and she ran
over to a corner of the room, where she kept her playthings.

"Shall I bring a red dress or a blue one?" Vi turned to ask her sister
Rose.

"Oh, bring any one you have and hurry up!" called Russ. "This steamboat
won't ever get started. All aboard! Toot! Toot!"

Vi snatched up what she called a bathing-dress from a small trunkful of
clothes belonging to her dolls, and ran back to the place where the
"steamboat" floated in the "ten-miles-deep water," in the middle of the
playroom floor.