ou will never forget them all your
life; it will be as easy and natural to you as walking."

"I wish I'd got to that stage," said Patty. "Just at present I feel like
one of those toy tin floating ducks that has lost its tail, and
over-balances when you put it into the water. I can't remember that I
ought to use both my arms and my legs. How well you managed, Jean!"

"I was practising on my bed this morning," said Jean. "Cissie and Maggie
showed me the strokes. It's really rather like what a frog does, isn't
it?"

"Come along; I can't waste time," said Miss Latimer. "I can give you
each one more turn with the lifebuoy, and then I shall expect you to
hold one another up, and try by yourselves."

By the third lesson Patty had improved so much that she was able to
manage without assistance, and Miss Latimer declared that she must swim
the entire length of the bath alone, from the steps to the deep end. All
the class stopped floating and diving, and sat down on the edge to
watch her, so that it was somewhat of an ordeal to have to perform her
feat before a row of laughing eyes. She did very nicely, indeed, in the
shallow part, where she could put a surreptitious foot to the bottom;
but when it came to the middle, and all had to depend upon her aquatic
skill, she grew nervous.

"Go on, Patty, you're all right!" called Enid.

"Throw your neck back!" cried Miss Latimer.

"Go on, Patty, keep it up!"

"Don't be done, Patty!"

"She's going under!"

"No, she's not!"

"Keep at it, Patty!"

"Don't be afraid!"

"You'll get across all right!"

In spite of her companions' encouraging remarks, however, Patty did not
succeed this time. I suppose she forgot to keep her neck thrown back, or
to draw in her breath properly; at any rate, up went her heels, and down
went her head, and she seemed suddenly to turn a kind of somersault in
the water. Instantly all the members of the class dived to her rescue,
so bent on putting into performance the life-saving which they had
practised, that they almost pulled her to pieces in their efforts.

"Oh, you've nearly dragged my arms off!" cried poor Patty, when at last
she was in safety at the shallow end again.

"You might have been drowned if it hadn't been for us!" exclaimed Cissie
Gardiner, hysterically.

"Hardly that, while I was standing by," remarked Miss Latimer, with a
smile. "But Patty has given you such good practice in rescuing a
drowning person, that you ought to be qui