"Don't be afraid!"
"You'll get across all right!"
In spite of her companions' encouraging remarks, however, Patty did not succeed this time. I suppose she forgot to keep her neck thrown back, or to draw in her breath properly; at any rate, up went her heels, and down went her head, and she seemed suddenly to turn a kind of somersault in the water. Instantly all the members of the class dived to her rescue, so bent on putting into performance the life-saving which they had practised, that they almost pulled her to pieces in their efforts.
"Oh, you've nearly dragged my arms off!" cried poor Patty, when at last she was in safety at the shallow end again.
"You might have been drowned if it hadn't been for us!" exclaimed Cissie Gardiner, hysterically.
"Hardly that, while I was standing by," remarked Miss Latimer, with a smile. "But Patty has given you such good practice in rescuing a drowning person, that you ought to be quite grateful to her."
"Oh, Patty, you did look funny! You came up spouting like a whale!" said Enid.
"I didn't feel funny," returned Patty. "It was horrid. I thought I was swallowing half the water in the bath."
"You won't want any tea, then!" declared Winnie.
"Yes, I shall."