een touching the bottom in the shallow water, but
they _could_ if they wished. Learning to swim in water that is over
your head is really better, though it is more "scary" at first. If you
do learn in that way you can thereafter look upon the deepest water
with confident scorn.

Confidence is a necessary possession for the beginner in almost any
sport. It is so much easier to do anything if we are quite positive
that we can. Probably, because you are a girl and are modest, you
will have to assume this attitude, but in horseback riding, for
example, an instant of fear while on the horse's back will "give you
away" to the beast. Since he is as keen as a dog to know when you fear
and dislike him, he will undoubtedly take advantage of it. If you are
quite positive that you can learn to ride and that the horse under you
is harmless, you will keep a firm hold on the reins instead of
clinging to the saddle horn in a panic.

The trying part of learning to ride is that the first day's experience
is painfully stiffening. This applies to almost any unusual exercise.
But to withdraw on account of that you may as well resign yourself to
taking exercise no more severe than that afforded by a rocking chair.
It does not pay to stop when you are stiff. Sticking to it is the only
way that will train those hitherto unused muscles to perform their
duties with no creaking of the hinges. A good night's rest is the
utmost limit of time that should intervene between each trial.

A girl has the physical disadvantage of less endurance than a boy, and
she does have to care for herself in that respect, and leave untried
some forms of exercise that would be overexertion for her. A girl may
"paddle her own canoe," of course, without risk of overstraining
herself, but when it comes to moving it from place to place out of the
water, the feather-light canoe of poetry becomes heavy reality. Two
girls can carry a canoe between them for a short distance without much
difficulty, but if one is alone it is far better to drag the canoe
over the ground, which is not particularly hard on it, unless the
ground is rough. The boy's way of carrying it balanced upside down on
his shoulders requires considerable strength.

Devotees of tennis will claim first place for that among girls'
sports. The amount of practice and quickness of thought and motion
that maybe acquired in a game of tennis is remarkable; the fascination
of the game itself rather than the benefit