“‘Tell me everything.’
“I gave him, in fewer words than I have just used, an exact account of what had happened. My father listened to me. I saw clearly that he was not angry. At one moment, however, I saw him grow pale; it was when he realized from my explanations that to go and undrown little Auguste (this was the word I used, and it has been so well remembered by all the family that I have not forgotten it), it was, I say, when he understood that I must certainly have crossed the river to reach the child.
“‘It is incomprehensible!’ said he to mamma and the doctor. ‘The middle of the river is every where at least five or six feet deep. What did he do?’
“‘Papa,’ said I, ‘I did as I saw the frogs do.’
“‘But then, my child, you swam.’
“‘I do not know, papa; perhaps—’
“‘Did the water go over your head?’
“‘No, papa, surely not.’
“‘You got no water in your mouth while you were going across to rescue little Auguste? You did not go altogether under water?’