Evening star., 1898-08-06
/ LESSON TIN SWIMMING

Yes." said ths Young man with the re-
concentrate face and hands he
returned. a couple of days ago, from a two
weeks sailing cruise down the 'river-'that
girl surely did rat 1t on me pretty hard,
and If she didn'eimake me feel like thirty
dark. mauve, alidyed cents of the realm,
never was made toIfeel that way.
1 met her at erfe of the family beaches
on brackish water, way down the river.
The morning 1 hauled my sloop alongside
the pier L met a washington chap knew,
and he took me walking down the row of
cottages. The girl was sitting alone on the
cottage pavilion belonging to her peoples
summer shack, overlooking the river. The
washington chap introduced me to her. I
didn't see 'em exchange any winks, but
1 m going to bruise him up some, anyhow,
the nrst time l meet him, on general prin-
clples. The girl was about nineteen, and
just ABOUT as demure a one as you ever
saw. We worked Off the usual line of talk
ana then, as the tide was high, and it was
about the bathing hour, L suggested a
swim.
Can you swim? 1 asked her.
shyly.
Oh, that's all right said land I guess
she must have thought l was nothing but
a Dig, half-grown, clumsy Newfoundland,
at that-IH teach you. I'm pretty nearly
the real thing when 1t comes to swimming,
II do say SO myself, as shouldn't. Come
on IN, and Ill give you a lesson or So
Wen, she went into her peoples cottage
and got her bathing togs on, and l got
suit and showed up at the private pier by
the time she was ready. A lot of the other
cottagers. including the girls parents and
younger sisters, were already in by this
time The girl was gotten up pretty natti-
ly, and her bathing rig looked so natural
on ner that l thought it was a pity she
couldn't swim. But she tripped over to the
edge of the water, stepped into about three
inches OF II, and then sat down just like
the ordinary run of women who are afraid
OF getting their hair wet. and who think
they're booked to drown if they get into
water UP to their knees.
ploughed into the water with the idea
OF showing what a torrid tamale was when
IL came to the wave-disporting business,
and L swan out a couple O. blocks or So
Then L returned on my back
do swim.
oh, it's dead easy said I, when you
get the knack of it, Just requires a little
confidence, that's ALL You can't possibly
go down in the water, you know. All
you've got to do, for instance, to float, is
TO ne perfectly still on the waters surface,
and you can't go to the bottom to save
your soul Confdence-thats the whole
thlng. Same as riding a bike. Anybody
can rlde a bike that's got the necessary
confidence. In swimming, just like riding
like this
And l plunged in and struck out with
an overland stroke, throwing a whole lot
O. grace into my movements and just pat
tlng the surface Of the water with my open
palms as they came down, to show how
perfectly at home 1 was. Then 1 SWAN
PACK TO where the girl was sitting
Why, how perfectly lovelyr said she.
And how easy it looks, tool'
Easy as rolling off log said l. Come
on in and try it
We'll. say, when that tall 1.-THE girl stood
up, and gave her bathing togs a few little
hitches. and thr5w her long hair back from
her face, L might have known what was
coming from THE praeticed way she moved
But 1 didn't. csIE
Come on said II backing into the wa
ter See If you9eanst swim out to me- /
won't let your shead;1get under water I'll
see that you-s, So
This was as far as 1 got. She suddenly
raised her arms over her head until her
palms met, and then she dived head first to-
ward where stsed. essay before had time
to muster any kind Of a line of Thinks L heard
a chuckle from adj the other bathers and I
looked around. Thatsgirl had just come up
about fifty feet behind me- and she was
striking out, with her right arm fully ex-,
tended beneath the water and the left arm
gracefully propellingo her about seven feet
with every moye, she made with it. She
cut the water like a dolphin. She looked
back at me with a. merry-eh a merry
merry laugh-arTmerEy iha ha, for a. fact
An the rest of fhe bat thers echoed the ha
ha: Talk about a jay: feeling small! That
girl Kept right on She switched to a ,dotI-
bic overland stroke, and swan that way
for hundred yards or SO. and then she
went ahead dog-fashions making steam-
launch time right along. Did / say 30
cents Well, all | could do was to stand
there in waist-highs water and look at her
After she had gone about a quarter of a
mile, she turned around, and. say, swim
ming on her back, and just kicking the wa
ter away from her, without using her arms
at all, III bet a watermelon that she was
back to the beach in less than three min
utes. She looked at me beamingly out of
the tail of her eye.
why, isn't it nice" she said. And it
seems so simple, too,'
Then she ran to the end of the pier and
turned double sommersault into the wa
ter, cutting 1t as clean as a knife
The little water witch is enjoying her
self this morning, isn't she? l heard some
people on the pavilion say.
well, then, | came away and I sailed
my sloop to a beach about twenty-eight
miles futher down. I haven't volunteered
to teach any demure-ooking girls how to
swim since, you hear met p"