GARDINER – A massive search for two children who wandered off from their Warren Road home Monday ended happily when they were found hours later in a small boat in the middle of the Kennebec River.

Dylan Robinson, 11, and his sister Madison, 4, were reported missing by their mother around 6:30 a.m., said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

State and local police, the Maine Warden Service and several fire departments took part in the search that ended after Dan Dufault, a pilot for the Warden Service, spotted Dylan and Madison in the boat shortly before 11:30 a.m.

The children had taken the boat from the town landing, McCausland said.