Ethel Morton at Chautauqua Part 9

"Della, this is Ethel Morton," she said. "And Ethel, this is Della Watkins. Now you know at least one other member of the Girls' Club, and it happens that Della is going to take basketry, unless she has changed her mind about it since yesterday."

"I haven't, Miss Roberts," declared Della; "I'm going to work at baskets until I can make a tray like one I saw at the Arts and Crafts Studios last summer. Mamma says it would take a grown person two summers to learn how to do it, but I'm going to try even if it takes me three."

"Della never gives up anything she once takes hold of," smiled Miss Roberts. "She's like her dog. He's a bull dog, and I should hate to have him take a fancy to anything I didn't want him to have!"

Both girls laughed and Della slipped her arm around Ethel Blue's waist and ran with her to the basketry teacher who was recording the names of her fast growing cla.s.s.

For an hour the girls worked at their new tasks and then they did some easy arm and leg exercises and ended the morning with a swift march around the big room.

"We must hand in our names for the camping trip," directed Dorothy.

"What is that?" asked both Ethels in chorus.

"Across the lake is a camp that both the Boys' and Girls' Clubs use in turn. There's a great rush to go so we'd better be on the list early."

"How long do we stay?"

"Just one night and plenty of grown people go, too, so the mothers never object. It's the grandest thing."

"I've never slept in a tent," said Ethel Blue, "and I'd _love_ to do it because my father has to do it so much. I think he'd like to have me."

But when they told Mrs. Morton of the plan she was not quite so eager as the girls would have liked to have her.

"How do you go there?" she asked.

"In a motor boat, Dorothy says."

"We shall be on the water a good deal this summer," said Mrs. Morton after thinking a minute, "and you girls can't learn to swim too quickly.

I think I will say that you may go to the camp when you can both swim at least twenty strokes."

"If my bathing dress is all ready I'll begin to-morrow, Aunt Marion."

"May we go in every day, Mother?"

"Every suitable day."

"I'll bet on Ethel Blue," p.r.o.nounced Roger solemnly. "She's a landsman's daughter so she'll work harder to learn than Ethel Brown will. Ethel Brown will think she'll take to it like a duck because her father is a duck, so to speak."

"You just wait," cried Ethel Brown defiantly.

"I believe they'll both be swimming in ten days," declared Grandfather Emerson.

At least they tried hard. They went regularly to the bathing beach, listened attentively to their instructor's directions, practiced carefully in the water, and were caught by the family a dozen times a day taking turns lying on benches and working each other's legs, and making gestures expressive of their desire to imitate the fishes that they could see slipping through the water when they looked down into it from the dock.

"They just flip a fin and off they go," sighed Ethel Blue. "I flip two fins and wag my feet into the bargain and I go down instead of forward."

"I'm not scared any longer, anyway. Teacher says that's a big gain."

"'Keep air in your lungs and you needn't be afraid,' she's told me over and over. 'Poke your nose out of water and you're all right.' It was kind of goo-ey at first, though, wasn't it, ducking your head and opening your eyes?"

"I got used to that pretty quick because I knew the water wasn't up to my neck and all I had to do to be all right was to stand up. The three arm movements I learned quickly; make ready, put your palms right together in front of your chest--then--"

"One,--push them straight forward as far as you can--"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Make Ready

"Put your palms right together in front of your chest."

She pushed Ethel Blue's legs forward as close to her body as they would go.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Number One

"Push the arms straight forward as far as you can."

She pulled the legs as far apart as she could and as far back as possible.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Number Two

"Turn the palms flat and swing them as far back as the shoulder."

She brought the legs together again, the heels touching.]

"Two,--turn the palms flat and swing them as far back as the shoulder--"

"Make ready again--bring your palms together in front of your chest again and repeat."

"What in the name of sense are you two kids chanting," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Roger, poking his head inside.

"Go away, Roger. We can breathe and we can work our arms and that means we can keep afloat. If only we can get the leg motions right!"

"Let me give you a pointer," said Roger, who was a fine swimmer; "while you're learning try hard not to make any useless movements. They tire you and they don't get you anywhere."

"That's just what our teacher says. 'Lost motion is bad anywhere, but in swimming it's fatal.'"

"She's all right," commended Roger. "You just keep up that bench system of yours and you'll come out O.K."

So Ethel Blue stretched herself again face down on the bench and Ethel Brown put her cousin's heels together and her toes out and pulled her legs straight back.

"Ready," she cried.

Then she pushed Ethel Blue's legs forward as close to her body as they would go, and a m.u.f.fled groan came from the pupil, head down over the bench.

"Hold your head up. Can't you make your arms go at the same time? Now leg Number One goes with the arm Number One."

"I can't do it yet," gurgled Ethel Blue; "I want to learn these leg movements by themselves first."

"Here's Number One, then," said Ethel Brown, and she pulled the legs as far apart as she could and as far back as possible, the feet still being horizontal; "and here's Number Two," and she brought the legs together again, the heels touching.

"I forgot to wag my feet when you did that last one," panted Ethel Blue.