“But suppose the boat was overset?” said Arthur.
“Oh, she won’t overset, my lad. You couldn’t overset her; and if she did—can you swim?”
“A little—not much. I’m not very fond of the water.”
“Ah! that’s a pity,” said Josh; “everybody ought to be able to swim. You’d better come down to me every morning, and I’ll take you out in the boat here and you can jump in and have a good swim round, and then come in again and dress.”
Arthur looked at him in horror. The idea seemed frightful. To come out away from land, and plunge into water eighteen feet deep, where he might go to the bottom and perhaps never come up again, was enough to stun him mentally for the moment, and he turned away from Josh with a shudder.
“Here you are, Taff!” said Dick just then. “Now have a try for a fish. Come and sit here; change places.”
Dick jumped up and stepped over the thwarts, vacating his seat right in the stern. In fact he looked as if he could have run all round the boat easily enough on the narrow gunwale had there been any need, while, in spite of his call and the sight of the fishing-line, Arthur sat fast.
“Well, why don’t you get up?”
“I—I prefer staying here,” said Arthur, who looked rather white.
“But you said you would like to fish!” cried Dick in a disappointed tone.