The boy laughed good-naturedly, and retaliated by splashing a few drops on them with the tip end of his oar.
King was fond of rowing, and was clever at it, and being a large, strong boy, it tired him not at all.

Moreover, the boat was a light, round-bottomed affair that rowed easily, and was not at all hard to manage.
King's foolery roused the spirit of mischief in the two girls, and faster and faster flew the drops of water from one to another of the merrymakers.
"No fair splashing!" cried King.

"Just a spray of drops goes." "All right," agreed Marjorie, who was also a stickler for fair play, and though she dashed the water rapidly, she sent merely a flying spray, and not a drenching handful.

But Molly was not so punctilious.

She hadn't the same instinct of fairness that the Maynards had, and half intentionally, half by accident, she flung a handful of water straight in King's face.
This almost blinded the boy, and for a moment he lost control of his oar.
An involuntary move on his part, due to the shock of the water in his face, sent the blade of one oar down deep, and as he tried to retrieve it, it splashed a whole wave all over Molly.
But Molly thought King intended to do this, and that it was merely part of the game, so with one of her lightning-like movements, she grasped the blade of the oar in retaliation.