s schoolfellows, sat on the bank of the
Colven, under some willows, dabbling his shins in the clear water of the
river.

The summer had been tremendously hot. Cricket was out of the question,
and boating equally uninviting. The playground had been left deserted
to bake and scorch under the fierce sun, and the swings and poles in the
gymnasium had blistered and cracked in solitude. The only place where
life was endurable was down by the river, and even there it was far too
hot to do anything but sit and dabble our feet under the shelter of the
trees, and think of icebergs!

A few of the fellows, to our unbounded envy, bathed. They could swim,
we could not; and if any rule at Parkhurst was strict, it was the rule
which forbade any boy who could not swim to bathe in the river, except
with special leave and under the care of a master. And so, like so many
small editions of Tantalus, we sat on the bank and kicked our heels in
the water, and bemoaned the fate which had brought us into the world
without web-feet.

Young donkeys that we were! The idea of _learning_ to swim had never
occurred to any of us till Bobby Jobson, in a happy moment, gave birth
to the idea in his ejaculation, "I tell you what it is, you fellows, I
shall learn to swim!"

"How?" I inquired.

"How?" said Jobson; "why, you know, how does every body learn?" and then
he was polite enough to call me a duffer.

"I'll tell you the way," said Ralley, one of our set. "Lie across a
desk on your stomach, two or three hours every day, and kick out with
your arms and legs."

"Corks and bladders," mildly suggested some one else.

"Get old Blades," (that was the boatman) "to tie a rope round your
middle and chuck you into the Giant's Pool," kindly proposed another.

"Just tumble in where you are," said Ralley, "and see if it doesn't come
naturally."

"Ugh!" said Jobson, with a grimace, giving a sidekick in the water in
the direction of the last speaker. "I'm not sure that _that_ dodge
would pay."

While he spoke, to our unbounded horror, the bank on which he and his
next neighbour were sitting suddenly gave way, and next moment, with a
shout and a splash, our two comrades were floundering helplessly in five
feet of water!

Help, happily, was at hand, or there is no saying what might have been
the end of the adventure. We did all we could by reaching out our hands
and throwing them our jackets to help them, while, with our shouts, we
summoned m