"Yes, my father has educated me until now."
"Why does he send you to school?"
"Because I nearly drowned myself and old Crusoe."
"Oh, I say, you're a lively fellow, I hope you won't try it on any of us. I for one don't want my friends to go into mourning on my account," said one boy from the group which had clustered round Leslie.
"Oh, no fear," replied Leslie, who loved a joke, "I won't try it until I'm perfectly sure of success, and will then take the whole school in hand."
"Ah, but unless you can swim, my boy, you will have to keep on dry land; the doctor don't like more than one pupil drowned a term, and Jones, here, was very near it the other day," slapping a quiet-looking boy on the back. "If Hall and I had not stood him on his head, to let the water run out of his mouth, and rolled him over and over on the bank, his place in the class would have been vacant, and you would have seen all our eyes red with weeping; eh, Jones?"
"That will do Moore," replied Jones; "you must not believe him, you new boy, or he'll cram you with no end of nonsense."
"Nonsense, Jones, nonsense! why, am I not the most sensible boy in the school?"
"Yes, when all the rest of us are away."
"Come, Moore, say no more," broke in Hall, "I have not ended my questioning yet." Then turning to Leslie he said, "Can you swim?"