te grateful to her."

"Oh, Patty, you did look funny! You came up spouting like a whale!" said
Enid.

"I didn't feel funny," returned Patty. "It was horrid. I thought I was
swallowing half the water in the bath."

"You won't want any tea, then!" declared Winnie.

"Yes, I shall."

"Patty must try again another day," said Miss Latimer. "She will soon
gain a little more confidence, and I expect after a few weeks she will
be diving at the deep end as readily as any of you. We will take the
life-saving again now, with Enid to play the part of a drowning person.
I was not at all satisfied with the way you pulled Patty out of the
water. If such an accident had happened in a river, or in the open sea,
I am afraid some of you would have been in danger yourselves."

Miss Latimer proved a true prophet, and Patty found that long before the
summer term was over she was able to both dive and float, as well as
swim easily round the bath. She was delighted with her new
accomplishment, and began to plan already whether it would be possible
to persuade her father to leave his patients and take his family to the
seaside for a few weeks during the holidays, so that she might have the
satisfaction of teaching the little ones what she had learnt herself.

"If he really can't spare the time," she confided to Enid, "there's a
big pond at the end of a pasture near a farm, about a mile from our
house. I'm sure it would be quite safe, and we could all bathe there,
even Kitty and Rowley. I could float a plank on the water to hold them
up while they're learning their strokes, or perhaps Mother's air cushion
would be of some use, if she'd lend it to us. Basil can swim already--he
learnt in the river near his school--so he'd come and help, and I'm sure
they'd all enjoy it immensely, even if they only splashed about and did
nothing else."

The two great recreations of the summer term at The Priory were tennis
and cricket. A few girls indulged occasionally in croquet and archery,
but that was only in spare time, and during the couple of hours devoted
daily to outdoor exercise everybody was expected to take part in one or
other of the principal games.

"You'd better choose definitely which you mean to go in for, Patty,"
said Winnie, "and then stick to it. If you've any aspirations towards
being a tennis champion, I should advise you to keep to the courts, and
practise every minute you can; but if, on the other hand, you like
cricket better, I