"A race! A race!" cried Bert, shaking his head to get the water out of his eyes and nose. He had held his mouth tightly shut when diving, so no water had been able to get between his lips.
"I'll race you!" exclaimed Tom Mason, and soon the boys were swimming as hard as they could toward the other bank. Some of them could not swim very well, but they paddled, or swam "dog-fashion."
"Tom's going to win!" cried one of the boys who could not swim fast. He was now standing up in the water, looking at the three boys in the lead.
"No, I think Bert will get to the other side first!" said another boy, who stood on the bank, not yet having dived in.
"You're all wrong, Harry will beat!" exclaimed a third boy, and so it proved. Harry soon passed Bert and Tom, and reached the farther bank first. Then Tom came next, while poor Bert was last.
"Too bad you couldn't win," said Harry kindly.
"Oh, you two are better swimmers than I am," said Bert. "I don't mind being beaten that way. I guess I need more practice."
"That's it," his cousin said. "I have had more chances to swim than you do, so of course I ought to be better."
"You can beat me, and I swim as much as you do," said Tom, who had lived in the country all his life, and near the little river. "I used to beat Harry every time," said Tom to Bert, "but now he goes ahead of me."
"Well, maybe you'll beat him next time," remarked Bert, with a laugh.