"Well, I should go to the bottom pretty quick if I should venture where the water is over my head, for I can't swim any more than this printing-press can," answered Wygate. "Why don't you learn? It might be of great use to you sometime." "I should like to know how, but I never tried to learn." "And that is a good reason for not knowing how to swim. You can't expect to know any thing without learning. I can teach you without any trouble." "I accept your offer, and will try my best to learn; and Hall will try with me, I think. You can teach two as well as one, can't you?" "Yes, a dozen, so far as that goes; the more the merrier." "When will you go?" "Just when you please. You and Hall fix the time, and I will be on hand." The result was that Benjamin was in the water with his two pupils within a few days, and he taught both of them to swim well in two lessons. At the same time, he gave them an exhibition of what an expert swimmer can do in the water, performing different feats on and under the water, that filled his two companions with surprise. "You are a water-American in more senses than one," remarked Wygate, in admiration of Benjamin's pranks in the water. "You could live in the water about as well as on the land." "That is not strange," responded Hall; "he believes in water, inside and outside; he only practises what he preaches, and that is what he ought to do." "Some people can't practise what they preach if they try ever so hard, in business or in morals," rejoined Wygate. Wygate was the son of a wealthy man, who educated him quite thoroughly. He could read Latin and French about as well as he could English, and he could write very entertaining articles. He was fond of reading, too, and loved to discuss important questions. Such a young man was not often found in a printing office, and he just suited Benjamin in his literary tastes, so that they became boon companions. Their mutual attachment was strengthened by this experience in the art of swimming. Not long after Wygate learned to swim, and while the feats that Benjamin performed in the water were still a subject of remark, some gentlemen proposed an excursion by water to Chelsea, several miles from London. "Wouldn't you like to go, Ben?" "Of course I would, if you are going." "I will go if you go. I will call round with some of the party and introduce you to them." This was done in due time, and Benjamin learned from them that they were going to Chelsea "to see the college and Don Saltero's curiosities," which object of the excursion more than doubled his interest. On the trip Wygate talked much with some of the party about Benjamin's feats in the water as almost too wonderful to be believed. On returning, one of the gentlemen said: "Franklin, why can you not give us an exhibition of your antics in the water?" "Yes, Ben, do; let them see that what I have told them is literally true," entreated Wygate.