“Oh, that’s perfectly safe for Betty, Mrs. Lee. They wouldn’t let her try it if she weren’t used to it and Betty can just do almost anything. Besides, it isn’t as close to the board when she does it as it looks. If you were right up at that end you’d see.”
“I see. I have heard Betty talk about all this so much, but I must say that all the remarks about this and that sort of a stroke and the different kinds of diving have rather gone over my head. I’ve not been able to get to the little meets the girls have had. This is delightful, the big pool and all the excitement. No wonder the girls like it, but Betty did not seem to be excited over it or care about taking first place. I wonder why?”
“Betty’s pretty level-headed,” laughed Carolyn. “She’s getting ready to do big things in her next two years, you see, big things for the G. A. A. So she isn’t going to get all worked up now. I shouldn’t wonder if she did get the best record for the diving, though. Those other girls weren’t half so good on that event, though that senior girl from North High is a wonder in swimming. Wait till those speed tests—or events—come off and watch her. Without her cap Betty’d be a goldfish, Kathryn!”
Mrs. Lee consulted her program. It was a help to see everything down, in black and white. Here was a certain sort of a stroke, and she could see it being done. “Amy Lou,” said she, “watch how they do it. Some day you will be doing that perhaps.”
“Oh, yes,” soberly said Amy Lou, watching the next group of contestants come in from out behind the curtains and stand in readiness. “I’m going to be a G. A. A.”
“The whole association, Amy Lou?” asked Kathryn, who liked to tease a little.
Amy Lou smiled a little. She didn’t mind Kathryn, who was always remembering her in some little way. “Yes,” said she. “I can swim now a little, up at Grandma’s, can’t I Mamma?”
“Yes, dear—but watch and keep still. The girls are going to start.”
Amy Lou had stopped jumping at the pistol shot and now leaned over with the rest, though she had to stand up to do it, to see the slim young bodies cleave the clear water of the pool, swim the length of it, turn, pushing their toes against the concrete wall of the pool and start for the other end.
The diving included “front, back and running,” the program said. Then there were a “twenty-yard back stroke for speed, a twenty-yard side stroke for speed and a twenty-yard free style for speed,” and Carolyn explained that “free style” meant “do it any way you want to—just get there!”