Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-09-17

swimming below me when the boom of
a small cat boat swung around in a
puff of wind, brushed me off the dock
as if had been fly and deposited
me in some six or seven feet of water.
was not much of a swimmer when
was four years old, and if an elder
brother had not hooked boat hook
under my collar and fished me out,
the sea would thereafter have called me
lin vain.
Three or four years later it occurred
to me that being young and light of
foot could skate from one short to
another of mill pond over ice whose
limberness frightened away the older
boys. l can still remember clearly
how the ice became rubbery as 1 got
out toward the middle, and how it un-
dulated under my skates till at last
they cut through its surface, and 1 felt
myself surrounded by very cold water.
That time two other@boys, bearing
planks baffled the deep of it's prey.
My clothes were like shining steel ar
NOR when I got home and. was thawed
out by the fire. My parents We're in
clined to think that 1 was foolisfly
V6HCuTGSOI1o
dent could have been avoided if I had
exercised al little more intelligence. 1t
struck me that they were unusually
severe on me, considering that l had
just been returned to them whole and
sound and considering further that it
had not been my fault at all. For
by then I knew that when the water
said "Come" there was nothing for me
to do but obey I was the helpless
child of an uncomfortable instinct
Between the ages of seven and IA
1 acceded so readily to every request
of the deep to return to it that the
family arranged inland vacations, care
fully ascertaining before hand that
there was no body of water deeper than
wash basin within the vicinity.
After that I learned to swim, and
they stopped worrying about me, for
time. In fact, they never subsequent
Ily had any fear for my life, but my
performances in the line of duty to
Vastly depths became a source of serious
embarrassment and annoyance to them
If we went on boating party | fell
overheard either getting into the craft
or getting out of it, or somewhere
along the way. These incidents in
volved no peril, because it was the
family practice to put lanyard
around my waist as soon as we got
within seeing distance of the water
and to keep it there till we were well
on our way back home. When the
expected splash called attention to the
! fact that had been summoned again
some one heaved in on the Lanyard
and I was assisted back to safety. But
dripping person dampened pleasure
party in more ways than one, and after
every such performance my father
mother, brothers and sisters would be-
seech me to give up this Irritating
habit and behave like other people. AL
in vain.
| 1t was not any particular addiction
| to the sport, but merely atavism which
led ME, on achieving my majority ant
[ my first job to purchase a small ca
boat for use on the Willamette rive1
Tin Oregon. Nature, not my trend o.
mind prompted the investment. Fol
three weeks 1 sailed the little Graf
without incident, and then Neptune ad
vised me one evening to take girl ou
for a ride balked at the advice fo
several days, steeling my will agains
the Inevitable, then 1 yielded, as o
course I must.
The girl was very nattily attiret
for the occasion. She was one of thos
girls who value their personal appear
ance over highly, and who would al
! most faint with shame if she got
frock spotted or rumpled. ha'
j tidied up the boat till it fairly shone
4 so that she would not turn up he
nose when she saw it, and had highl,
resolved that this time at least
would stay on board, so that | woul'
not need to Chamber over the side an
spray her with dirty water as shool
myself, after the spaniel fashion whicl
had become second nature to me.
1 slowed the girl carefully in tn
lstern sheets, cast off the painter an
coiled myself for a graceful leap t
the deck as the boat slid away fror
the wharf. Tt was only by quartz
of an inch that I miscalculated tn
ldistance, but it was sufficient. M