THE FIRST SWIMMING LESSON
You’ll never learn to float on sand,
Nor swim by staying on the land.
_Little Joe Otter._
One morning Peter Rabbit was a little late in getting over to the home
of Little Joe Otter. When he got there, there was not a sign of the two
brown Otter children at the doorway of their home between the roots of
the big tree. “It must be,” thought Peter, “that they have gone off
hunting. I wonder if I can find them if I look for them.”
Just then his ears caught the sound of splashing in the Laughing Brook.
Very, very carefully Peter crept over where he could see what was going
on. Such a funny sight as it was! There in the water were Little Joe and
Mrs. Joe, diving and swimming and splashing as only they can. On the
bank were the two Otter children, watching with their eyes round with
wonder, and a great longing. At the same time it was very clear to Peter
that those two youngsters were afraid of the water. Little Joe and Mrs.
Joe kept calling to them to come in, but they wouldn’t.
No, Sir, those little Otters wouldn’t more than wet their feet. Mrs. Joe
swam over to where they were and coaxed them, as only a mother can. It
was of no use. All the coaxing in the world couldn’t overcome their fear
of the water. Then she pretended to be very angry, and she ordered them
to follow her. They whimpered and cried, but not one step into the water
would they go. Then she tried making fun of them, but she was no more
successful than before.
They were afraid. Yes, Sir, they were afraid. There was no doubt about
it. Peter doesn’t like the water himself, but when he has to he can
swim. He couldn’t remember ever having been as much afraid of the water
as those two Otter children, not even when he was a very little fellow.
And that seemed funny, too. In fact, Peter couldn’t understand it at
all. Here were two babies whose father and mother were among the best
swimmers in the world, and yet they couldn’t get their two youngsters
into the water.
Finally, with a great deal of coaxing, Mrs. Otter got one of them to
take a ride on her back. Then she gave the other a ride. For a long time
they swam around and around, and had a beautiful time. The babies liked
this. You see, they felt perfectly safe, and it was great fun to be
carried about, here and there and everywhere. Then, without the least
bit of warning, while both babies were on her back Mrs. Joe dived. Now
of course when she did this, it carried the two babies right under
water, and the minute they went under water they let go and came to the
top.
My, my, my, what a frightened pair they were! They blew the water out of
their noses, and both began to whimper and cry. But at the same time
both began to paddle as fast as ever they could.
Little Joe and Mrs. Joe popped their round brown heads out of water and
swam just ahead of the two babies. The two babies did their very best to
get on the backs of Little Joe and Mrs. Joe. But the latter kept just
out of their reach. Then one of the babies stopped crying. He had
discovered something; he had discovered that he was swimming, and that
swimming was really great fun. Somehow that water didn’t seem so
dreadful any more. Then the other discovered the same thing. They had
had their first swimming lesson and had found that mother and father
were right after all; the water wouldn’t hurt them. When at last they
scrambled up on the shore and shook the water from their little brown
coats, their eyes were shining with pride and excitement.