“Oh, say, that would be great!” exclaimed Billy enthusiastically. “Let’s go to-morrow!”
“Well, I don’t know about to-morrow. I was going to ask grandfather to let us have a horse and wagon, and we’ll have to wait till one can be spared from the farm work. But we’ll go soon.”
“Can you swim?” asked Billy suddenly.
“No, not exactly,” confessed Christopher reluctantly. “I had some lessons at a swimming school in town, but somehow I couldn’t seem to get just the hang of it by myself.”
“Oh, well, if you’ve got a start Perk an’ I’ll soon teach you,” Billy promised patronizingly. “I know of a bully swimming hole, safe as anything.”
“I don’t know whether grandfather would let me go in swimming,” said Christopher slowly, feeling that the expedition was growing more serious than he had intended. Yet he found it unbearable to have Billy think him lacking in any manly sport. “But if it’s a perfectly safe place I guess he’ll say——”
“Oh, pshaw, what do you want to tell him for? I guess your grandfather doesn’t want you to be a sissy-boy, does he?”
“Of course not!” answered Christopher indignantly.
“Well, then, he must want you to learn to swim. If you should just go home some fine afternoon and say, ‘Gran’pa, I know how to swim,’ why, he’d be as pleased as—as a pup.”
“But I do know how—almost—already,” boasted Christopher.