My Boyhood and Touth 



made haste to reply, "Oh, no! He was juist 

 haverin (making fun)." 



I was very much ashamed of myself, and at 

 night, after calmly reviewing the affair, con- 

 cluded that there had been no reasonable cause 

 for the accident, and that I ought to punish 

 myself for so nearly losing my life from unmanly 

 fear. Accordingly at the very first opportunity, 

 I stole away to the lake by myself, got into my 

 boat, and instead of going back to the old 

 swimming-bowl for further practice, or to try 

 to do sanely and well what I had so ignomini- 

 ously failed to do in my first adventure, that 

 is, to swim out through the rushes and lilies, 

 I rowed directly out to the middle of the lake, 

 stripped, stood up on the seat in the stem, and 

 with grim deliberation took a header and dove 

 straight down thirty or forty feet, turned easily, 

 and, letting my feet drag, paddled straight to 

 the surface with my hands as father had at 

 first directed me to do. I then swam round the 

 boat, glorying in my suddenly acquired confid- 

 ence and victory over myself, climbed into it, 

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