The dock was crowded when they reached the “bathing grounds.” They might have “gone in” at their own beach in the cove, but the rocks around that corner were jagged, and Mackey decided it would be better to take the dives from the regular springboard off the landing.
“I wish we would see Peg,” Grace said to Cleo. “I wonder where she goes in?”
“Never saw her in a bathing suit,” replied Cleo, “but I’m sure she’s a regular fish in the water. We’ll ask her to come with us next time we see her.”
“Do you suppose she works at anything?” Grace asked again.
“Why! How queer that you should think she works?” charged Cleo.
“Well, she does something. She wouldn’t ride away so early every morning just for pleasure; and Benny says he has seen her so often.”
A call to line up for a running dive interrupted the conversation, and presently the Bobbies quite forgot Peg, in their joy of a real swim in Lake Hocomo.
“Lots better than the ocean,” chugged Louise, just coming in from a long pull. “I never could try this stroke in the big waves,” and she dove back again to try the “crawl” in the smooth yet pleasantly warmed waters; for the lake was never very cold at the big open basin that surrounded this point.
“And no tide to worry about,” added Margaret.
However dear was the ocean when at the ocean they tarried, the Scouts had a happy faculty of shifting their affection, and now it was the “wonderful lake!”