lood. The blood rushed
to his brain in a wild explosion of terror. He struck out madly with his
long arms and legs, fighting with desperation for breath and drinking in
only the agony and fear of death. His mother's voice came low and faint
and far away in some other world, saying softly:

"Be good now, while we're gone!"

Again he struck out blindly, fiercely, madly into the darkness that was
slowly swallowing him body and soul.

His hand touched something as he sank, he grasped it with instinctive
terror and knew no more until he waked in the infernal regions with the
Devil sitting on his stomach glaring into his eyes and holding him by
the throat trying to choke him to death. His head was down a steep hill.

With a mighty effort he threw the Devil off, loosed his hold and sucked
in a tiny breath of air, and then another and another, coughing and
spluttering and wheezing foam and water from his mouth and ears and nose
and eyes.

At last a voice gasped:

"Is--that--you--Austin?"

"You bet it's me! I got ye a breathin' all right now--who'd ye think it
wuz?"

The Boy coughed again and squeezed his lungs clear of water.

"Why--I was afraid I was dead and you was the Old Scratch and had me."

"Well, I thought you was a goner shore nuff till yer hand grabbed the
pole I stuck after ye. Man alive, but you did hold onto it! I lakened
ter never got yer hand loose so's I could pull ye up on the bank and
turn ye upside down and squeeze the water outen ye."

"Did you sit on my stomach and choke me?" the Boy asked.

"I set on yer and mashed the water out, but I didn't choke you."

"I thought the Old Scratch had me!"

For an hour they talked in awed whispers of Sin and Death and Trouble
and then the blood of youth shook off the nightmare.

They were alive and unhurt. They were all right and it was a good joke.
They swore eternal secrecy. The day was yet young and it was a glorious
one. Their clothes were wet and they had to be dried before night. That
settled it. They would strip, hang their clothes in the hot sun and
wallow in the sand and play in the shallow water until sundown.

"And besides," Austin urged, "this here's a warnin' straight from the
Lord--me and you must learn ter swim."

"That's so, ain't it?" the Boy agreed.

"It's what I calls a sign from on high--and it pints right into the
creek!"

They agreed that the thing to do was to heed at once this divine
revelation and devote the whole Sabbath d