Life on a Wisconsin Farm 



faithfully trying to imitate frogs; but the 

 smooth, comfortable sliding gait of our amphi- 

 bious teachers seemed hopelessly hard to learn. 

 When we tried to kick frog-fashion, down went 

 our heads as if weighted with lead the moment 

 our feet left the ground. One day it occurred 

 to me to hold my breath as long as I could and 

 let my head sink as far as it liked without pay- 

 ing any attention to it, and try to swim under 

 the water instead of on the surface. This 

 method was a great success, for at the very 

 first trial I managed to cross the basin without 

 touching bottom, and soon learned the use of 

 my limbs. Then, of course, swimming with 

 my head above water soon became so easy that 

 it seemed perfectly natural. David tried the 

 plan with the same success. Then we began 

 to count the number of times that we could 

 swim around the basin without stopping to 

 rest, and after twenty or thirty rounds failed 

 to tire us, we proudly thought that a little more 

 practice would make us about as amphibious 

 as frogs. 



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