“How can you be friendly with a dog when he’s liable to bite you?” retorted Dick. “The sea is no more liable to drown you, if you treat it right, than the dog is liable to bite you if you’re not afraid of him.”
Just then Ellsworth and Chippie came up and joined them, and Dick repeated earnestly to them what he and Brown had been talking about.
“Of course,” said Ellsworth, “you can’t expect to get along in the sea unless you keep the rules of the sea. A bird knows the rules of the air, but can’t get along under water because he isn’t made so that he can keep the rules of the water. But you and I, Bill, are made so that we can learn the rules of the sea and of the air, as well as those of the land, if we want to, and aren’t scared to try. You have to have a brain to keep your balance, wherever you are—and your brain has to know how to do it; and it can learn if it isn’t scared. For instance, take the rules of the land; you can keep up on the two wheels of a bicycle so long as you’re moving, because you’ve got a brain; but the bicycle can’t by itself, and falls over unless you prop it.”
“What’s that got to do with swimming?” asked Billy in a dull tone.
“Why,” answered Ellsworth, “you’ve got to learn to balance in the water and on the water, just as you do on a bicycle,—only it’s a little different; and, if you do, the water will prevent you from drowning. When you know how to balance on the water, you can lie down on it and float, very much as you’d lie down on the floor; and it will keep you up, so long as your balance is right, in the same way that the floor does. But the hard thing about it is that you can’t keep your balance if you’re scared.”
“And,” broke in Dick, “if you’re friendly with the water, you can’t be scared.”
“That’s a funny thing,” said Brown thoughtfully, “I guess I don’t understand the water. Just the same as that friend of your Dad’s didn’t understand dogs. Is that what you mean, Dickie?”
“You bet,” answered Dick, “that’s just right. But you don’t seem to see that the sea is friendly. All it asks is for you to understand and keep its rules, the same as you have to keep the regulations on board ship.”
Brown had brightened up a little during the last part of the conversation; but, after a while, he grew sober again.
“What are you fellows talking about, anyway? The sea isn’t a man that can be friendly or unfriendly any more than a table or a chair can. It hasn’t got as much brains as a dog! It can’t even bark, let alone talk to a fellow.”