CHAPTER III 



YOUTHFUL EXPERIENCES 



" You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you not ?" 



Merry Wives of Windsor. 



She bade him strike out and fear nothing, but he 

 stood on the shore bleating, timorous and afraid. 

 Three times she swam out into open water, forth 

 and back, until, finding all efforts at encouragement 

 unavailing, she took to more drastic methods, and 

 viciously butted and pushed the shrinking calf into 

 the rushes fringing the islet. 



The water was over his hocks, his thighs, closed 

 above his head 1 His feet touched bottom, an oozy 

 substance which gave no foothold. Then some 

 force, dominating his will, flung out his limbs, and 

 lo ! he found himself buoyed up and riding the lake 

 like the beavers. The distance to the opposite 

 shore was lessening with every forward stroke of 

 his labouring shoulders — he could see that quite 

 well. An oddly-shapen mystery on which he had 



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