It was almost immediately apparent that the mother had made a serious miscalculation. She walked too far across the lake without her cubs. Her cubs were still too young to swim as powerfully as their mother. As the water grew colder, and the current stronger, they clung to her for dear life.
The more her cubs clung to her though, the more rapidly the mother was tiring. It was no longer clear she could make it all the way across. She would soon have a dreadful decision to make.