Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1914-06-25
TRAINING A BUMP
ax John PnILlP oRrH.

Where are the life-savers =
IL wasn't at the seashore, but al
; quiet inland lake fronting a big
: summer hotel There we're forty OF
fifty guests in bathing when the
shouts and struggles Of young man
: who had been too venturesome sud-
denly attracted attention.
OF the people in the water not
more than half could swim. OF the
half that could every one hesitated.
There is more peril in seeking to
rescue a drowning man than rush
ing into a burning building. A
drowning man grapples you. He
pulls you down. And, too, the alarm
always comes so suddenly that its
nature is not comprehended for 9
moment.
The lookers-on were screaming
and shouting, but no one in the wa
ter going TO the rescue. Then a girl
who had just donned her bathing
suit came running along the beach
and plunged in and swan for the
sinking man. She went through the
water like q power boat and the
watchers called to each other:
'That's the Waverly girl. She will
save him."
When she had brought the man
into shallower water there was help
enough extended, and his uncon-
scious body was soon at the hotel and
under the care of the doctors.
The Waverly girl was cheered, but
she seemed rather more disgusted
than pleased. She had saved the life
of Alger Montague, and Alger was
the son of his widowed mother and
a pet.
He was twenty-three years old; he
had chat tired feeling" He was
also bored with life. He went about
with a weary air and announced that
there we're so many "gurls" it gave
him a pain
Miss Beatrice Waverly was also at
the hotel. Her mother was also a
widow. An introduction had come
about, but there was one who wished
it hadn't. That one was young
Alger.
Miss Beatrice sized him up at
once. She had no use for his kind.
Half day after the introduction he
found her in a shady nook reading
book.
"Ah, there, Miss Waverly, won't
you throw aside your book and enter
.ain fellahr"
81 think l am more interested in
the bookt' was the freezing reply.
"But what's a fellah to do, ye
know?"
"You might sit on the shore of the
lake and kick pebbles p
"Some fellahs would take that as
a cut" he said, trying to laugh, "but
| shan't. fawncy that we are go
ing to like each other, doncher
kmowp
"No, 1 don't know any such
thingP she retorted, and she closed
the book and left him.
"All bluff p he chuckled, as he
looked after her. "She just wants
me to think she's coy. Oh, the gurls
the gurlsr"
And it was this young mans life
that Miss Beatrice had saved. 1t
wouldn't have come about but for his
playing the fool with another young
lady. He had boasted to her that
he could swim across the lake, and
when asked to make his word good
he had padded out beyond the safety
line and got cramp and been
brought ashore almost dead.
"You don't like him." said Mrs.
Waverly to her daughter, ''but let
him down easy"
"He's young man that needs taxi
ing down a few pegsP' answered Bea-
trice. "But let some one else do it.
If he's spoiled it's his mothers fault,
but Pm not going to tell her So"
OF course, after the life-saving
came the thanks. Miss Beatrice
lodged the saved young man, because
she had an object in view.
In a day or two, however, she let
him discover" her half mile from
the hotel and his mother. She was
skipping clamshells on the surface
of the water when he came running