TELLS ABOUT SKINNY'S SWIMMING LESSON
I don't know what to call this chapter. Maybe it will come without
calling, hey? Anyway, I should worry. Maybe I'll think of a name when
I'm finished with it. It will be mostly about Skinny.
There isn't much more to tell about our trip to Catskill Landing, but
you just wait, and there'll be a lot to tell you about our cruise down
again. Don't be in a hurry--just you wait. More haste, less speed. But
take it from me, you don't get much speed out of a house-boat. A
house-boat belongs to the merry-go-round family, that's what Mr. Ellsworth
says.
That night we kept the boat tied up to the dock in Poughkeepsie and
took a hike around the town, while Mr. Ellsworth tried to find somebody
who would tow us up to Catskill Landing. When we got back, he said he
had been talking with a man who had a little steam yacht and would tow
us as far as Catskill Landing. He said it wouldn't cost anything,
because anyway he was going up through Lake Champlain and Lake George
and he was strong for the Boy Scouts. You hear lots of men say that.
But, one thing, he wasn't going for two days and so we'd have to stay
tied up in Poughkeepsie waiting for him. You see we were a kind of a
tramp boat, but what did we care as long as we got to camp some time or
other. Scouts are tramps anyway, hey?
So now I have to tell you about that two days we spent in Poughkeepsie
and most of the time we spent in teaching Skinny to swim. Of course,
that was up to the Elks and you can bet I didn't interfere, nor any of
my patrol either, but I was mighty glad to see how easy it was for him
to learn.
[Illustration: MOST OF THE TIME WAS SPENT IN TEACHING SKINNY TO SWIM.]
"That kid is half fish," Doc Carson said to me.
"No wonder," I said, "most all his life has been spent in the marshes.
He's going to be a cracker-jack, you see."
"He'll walk away with that badge when he once gets started," Westy
said.
"You mean he'll swim away with it," I said; "gee-williger, look how
that little codger can dive."
One thing, there was a dandy place for learning, that's sure.
We put the skiff into the water and a couple of the Elks rowed around
near the house-boat, keeping near, while Hunt Ward showed Skinny the
strokes. The rest of us sat along the cabin roof, cheering just so's
the kid would be encouraged. He looked awfully thin and little in his
bathing suit and whenever he climbed up to the deck of the house-boat
the wet cloth stuck tight to him and made him look, oh, I don't know,
kind of like a marsh rat, as you may say. That's what he always said
people called him, a _swamp rat_, and I guess he was even kind of proud
of it.
One sure thing, he was game. And he was just the same in learning to
swim as he was in everything else; he got all excited and wanted to go
too fast. As soon as he got the hang of it and could manage a few
strokes, _good night_, he wanted to swim across the river. He started
right off before the fellows in the boat noticed him and was heading
across stream. Two or three times we heard him sputtering and shouting,
"_Now can I have that badge?_"
Late that afternoon they let him dive off the deck. It was low and it
didn't make much of a dive. Of course, he didn't dive right, he only
just jumped and went kerflop into the water, and he had us all
laughing. As soon as he found out how much fun it was, he kept climbing
up and splashing into the water again; oh, boy, it was as good as a
circus to see him. Then he'd go swimming to the skiff and climb in just
like a little eel, and sit there shivering.
You can bet that kid is going to have the swimming badge all right, we
all said; the trouble is going to be to hold him back. And we were
right, too, because when he came up on the cabin roof to get dry, all
of a sudden, before any of us knew it, he was over at the edge and
dived off before Mr. Ellsworth had a chance to call to him. That was
sure too much of a dive for a beginner, for if he hit the water face
down and flat, _good night_, that might have been the end of him. The
skiff was hauled up then so Hunt Ward dived in after him, but he had to
swim some to catch him and it was mighty funny to see them.
That night Mr. Ellsworth gave Skinny a good lecture and told him he
mustn't do things like that until he was told to, but I guess Skinny
didn't understand. When I saw Mr, Ellsworth sitting alone on the deck
after dark, I went up and sat down and began talking to him. I often do
that.
I said, "I guess Skinny's going to get the swimming badge, all right."
"Yes, I guess he is," that's what Mr. Ellsworth said, "Skinny's too
much for me. If the boys would only teach him a little scouting, I'd be
better pleased. He wants to be a swimmer now; he's not thinking about
being a scout. He thinks of the badge only as something to wear."
"I tried to teach him some things out of the Handbook," I said, "but
the Elks didn't like it. I tried to tell him some things about scouting
and all I got was a good lecture from Connie. Nix on teaching fellows
in other patrols."
Mr. Ellsworth seemed awfully worried, kind of; he just sat thinking a
minute. Then he said, "I'm afraid Skinny is going to be hard to tame.
He'll make a fine swimmer and a fine stalker--"
I said, "He calls that sneaking."
Mr. Ellsworth laughed and said, "But the principal thing is to make him
a good scout. Has he done any good turns?"
I said, "The only good turns I know about, are the good turns he made
in diving; he turns every which way."
"Well, I hope he can forget about swimming long enough to eat his
supper," Mr. Ellsworth said.
But just the same Skinny didn't.