is place. "Now we'll
have one each time. The one for to-day is--How to act in a case of
drowning."

To speak the strict truth, I would rather not have thought about
drowning. I had my own private horror over a neighbouring mill-dam,
and I had once been very much frightened by a spring-tide at the sea;
but cowardice is not an indulgence for one of my race, so I screwed up
my lips and pricked my ears to learn my duty in the unpleasant
emergency of drowning.

"It doesn't mean being drowned yourself," Rupert continued, "but what
to do when another person has been drowned."

The emergency was undoubtedly easier, and I gave a cheerful attention
as Rupert began to question us.

"Supposing a man had been drowned in the canal, and was brought
ashore, and you were the only people there, what would you do with
him?"

I was completely nonplussed. "I felt quite sure I could do nothing
with him, he would be so heavy; but I felt equally certain that this
was not the answer which Rupert expected, so I left the question to
Henrietta's readier wit. She knitted her thick eyebrows for some
minutes, partly with perplexity, and partly because of the sunshine
reflected from the cucumber frame, and then said,

"We should bury him in a vault; Charlie and I _couldn't_ dig a grave
deep enough."

I admired Henrietta's foresight, but Rupert was furious.

"How _silly_ you are!" he exclaimed, knocking over the top of the
rhubarb-pot table and the empty glass in his wrath. "Of course I don't
mean a dead man. I mean what would you do to bring a partly drowned
man to life again?"

"That wasn't what you _said_," cried Henrietta, tossing her head.

"I let you come to my lecture," grumbled Rupert bitterly, as he
stooped to set his table right, "and this is the way you behave!"

"I'm very sorry, Rupert dear!" said Henrietta. "Indeed, I only mean to
do my best, and I do like your lecture so very much!"

"So do I," I cried, "very, very much!" And by a simultaneous impulse
Henrietta and I both clapped our hands vehemently. This restored
Rupert's self-complacency, and he bowed and continued the lecture.
From this we learned that the drowned man should be turned over on his
face to let the canal water run out of his mouth and ears, and that
his wet clothes should be got off, and he should be made dry and warm
as quickly as possible, and placed in a comfortable position, with the
head and shoulders slightly raised. All this seemed quite feasible t