While they were dressing Miss Miller called out, "How many of you can swim the required hundred yards and win a coup?"
"I can—or at least I could last summer," replied Zan.
"I can swim some, I don't know how far!" said Jane.
"I can swim a stroke!" exclaimed Hilda, and the other two girls admitted the same lack.
"Dear me, girls! don't tell me that you three can't swim at all!" cried Miss Miller, amazed.
"What opportunity has a city girl to swim?" asked Hilda wonderingly.
"Why, child! In winter there are a number of good Municipal Bathing houses open for girls, and everything is kept in splendid order too. Then, in summer there are plenty of summer resorts near the city where one can bathe and learn to swim!"
"But a girl can't visit them alone, and parents haven't much time to escort one to such resorts—so there you are!" replied Hilda.
"Yes, that's true! Well, with fine camps started, girls, as well as boys, will be able to enjoy the woods as well as the waters of the country, without cost of time or money for parents," said Miss Miller, as she came from her tent dressed in a neat one-piece bathing suit.
The others were waiting for her, looking self-conscious in their union suits. The Guide saw this and decided that they must be made to forget themselves at once. So she proposed a race from the tents to the willow tree that stood by the pool. The winner to have an extra cookie for supper.