paring myself to the soap in
the bathtub at home, for that almost floated, but gradually settled down
to the bottom, just as my body seemed to do.

"I shall soon swim," I thought to myself; but I felt no inclination to
risk the first plunge and begin the struggle. It was far more pleasant
to keep on wading there with the water up to my chest, and the delicious
sensation of novelty, half fear, half pleasure, making me now venture
out a few inches into deeper water, now shrink back towards the bank.

How beautiful it all seemed, with the mellow afternoon sunlight dancing
on the water as a puff of warm wind came now and then along the river.
The trees were so green and the sky so blue, and the barges, and horses
that drew them by the towing-path on the other side, all seemed to add
to my pleasure, for the barges seemed to glide along so easily, and they
floated, and that was what I wanted to do.

I forgot all about my companions, who must have been a couple of hundred
yards higher up the river, while I was wading down.

By degrees I found the water a little deeper, and I shrank from it at
first, but I was close to the bank and had only to stretch out my hand
to catch hold of a tuft of grass or sedge, and, after the shrinking
sensation, it seemed pleasant to have the water higher up about my
shoulders. It was so much harder to walk, and I could feel myself
almost panting. Beside this there was a nice soft muddy bottom,
pleasanter to the feet than the gravel where I had plunged in.

Yes: I thought it a much nicer place there, and I was slowly and
cautiously wading on, while all at once I found the water seeming to
come in the opposite direction, curving round towards me in a place
where the bank was scooped out.

It looked so smooth that I pressed on, taking one step forward, so that
the water might rush up against me, and--then I was floating, for my
feet found no bottom, and with an excited thrill of delight I felt that
I could swim.

Yes; there was no doubt about it. I could swim as easily as George Day,
only I was not moving my hands, while the water was bearing me up and
carrying me round as in a whirlpool just once, and then I was swept into
the tide-way with the water thundering in my ears, a horrible strangling
sensation in my nostrils, and a dimness coming over my aching eyes.

I could never remember much about it, only that it was all a confusion
of thundering in my ears and rushing sounds. I kept on b