“I’ll wait till tomorrow before I try it again. Isn’t it horrid? I wish I were a regular Samson!”
“You’ll do it all right the next time. I don’t believe I could have done it either if I had been where you were. Go out toward the back water tomorrow. Here comes Lil. Good work, Lilian.”
Betty had been successful in her canoe test, and while waiting for the other girls, was swimming or playing around in shallow water.
“Watch Eloise. There she is, just ready to tip over.” Like a scarlet tanager in black and red, Eloise stood poised in her boat, handing her paddle to her guardian of the row boat, and waiting till the row boat drew off.
“There she goes!” Betty and Cathalina stood in the water watching, and Lilian paused in drawing in her boat to see Eloise perform her spectacular act, now on the edge of her canoe, tipping it, now going over and down, coming up in a jiffy and turning her canoe shoreward.
“Rowing is so much harder work than paddling,” said Cathalina. “I’m glad that I’m learning canoeing, but I wish I were more at home in the water.”
“The only way is to do it a lot, I guess,” said Betty. “Let’s do as much paddling as we can up here and go in for the races at school next year.”
“I don’t believe Mother and Father would let me race,” said Cathalina.
“O, they never get up much speed at Greycliff.”
“Anyway, I’m going to paddle all I can. Will you go out with me this afternoon if they let us?”