her hand and let her go
alone. Gladys went a dozen strokes before she perceived that
Nyoda had let go of her. She progressed so much that day that
the next swimming period Nyoda considered it unnecessary to help
her at all, and let her swim up and down the beach by herself and
practise for distance until she could take the test.

Sahwah no longer had the doctor come over to see her, as this
took a great deal of his time, but went across the lake in the
launch to his office to have the splints looked after.

"Vell, Missis Sahvah," he would always say on these occasions,
"how many ladies haf you pushed by de neck across de top of de
lake to-day?" He always exclaimed in delight at the progress her
arm was making. "Such bones!" he would say, waving his hands
eloquently. "Dey can knit faster dan my grandmama could, and she
was de fastest knitter in Hamburg! If only my son Heinrich could
see dose bones! You vould like to see my son Heinrich, yes?" He
took down a photograph from the top of his medicine cabinet and
showed it to her and Nyoda. "Dot is my son Heinrich. He now
studies medicine at de University of Berlin in de Staatsklinick.
He is going to be a great surgeon doctor. Next year he comes to
America to practise mit me in dis office. Den you can break both
of your arms at vonce, for dere will be two doctors to tie dem
up!" His deep laugh boomed out pleasantly at his own joke.

On another occasion he led them with an air of great mystery into
the kitchen of his house and showed them a basket wherein five
kittens were lying on a soft bed. He sat down and took all five
of them into his lap. They scampered all over him, up and down
his arms, on top of his head, up and down his legs, while he
laughed heartily at their antics. He shouted with glee when one
of them darted a furry paw into his open mouth. "You vould like
von of de liddle cats, yes?" he said to Sahwah. "I vould like to
keep dem all, but Missis Schmitt, de lady who keeps house for me,
she says no, and I haf to mind vot she says."

"May I take one, Nyoda?" asked Sahwah. Nyoda assented and Sahwah
picked out the liveliest one, which was coal black from his nose
to the tip of his tail.

"Vait a minute," said the doctor when they were about to start,
and after fumbling in a drawer he produced a red ribbon with a
little bell attached. "Dere, now, you can find him in de dark,"
he said, tying it round the kitten's neck. The girls were
enchanted