By the third lesson Patty had improved so much that she was able to manage without assistance, and Miss Latimer declared that she must swim the entire length of the bath alone, from the steps to the deep end. All the class stopped floating and diving, and sat down on the edge to watch her, so that it was somewhat of an ordeal to have to perform her feat before a row of laughing eyes. She did very nicely, indeed, in the shallow part, where she could put a surreptitious foot to the bottom; but when it came to the middle, and all had to depend upon her aquatic skill, she grew nervous. "Go on, Patty, you're all right!" called Enid. "Throw your neck back!" cried Miss Latimer. "Go on, Patty, keep it up!" "Don't be done, Patty!" "She's going under!" "No, she's not!" "Keep at it, Patty!" "Don't be afraid!" "You'll get across all right!" In spite of her companions' encouraging remarks, however, Patty did not succeed this time. I suppose she forgot to keep her neck thrown back, or to draw in her breath properly; at any rate, up went her heels, and down went her head, and she seemed suddenly to turn a kind of somersault in the water. Instantly all the members of the class dived to her rescue, so bent on putting into performance the life-saving which they had practised, that they almost pulled her to pieces in their efforts. "Oh, you've nearly dragged my arms off!" cried poor Patty, when at last she was in safety at the shallow end again. "You might have been drowned if it hadn't been for us!" exclaimed Cissie Gardiner, hysterically. "Hardly that, while I was standing by," remarked Miss Latimer, with a smile. "But Patty has given you such good practice in rescuing a drowning person, that you ought to be quite grateful to her." "Oh, Patty, you did look funny! You came up spouting like a whale!" said Enid. "I didn't feel funny," returned Patty. "It was horrid. I thought I was swallowing half the water in the bath." "You won't want any tea, then!" declared Winnie. "Yes, I shall." "Patty must try again another day," said Miss Latimer. "She will soon gain a little more confidence, and I expect after a few weeks she will be diving at the deep end as readily as any of you. We will take the life-saving again now, with Enid to play the part of a drowning person. I was not at all satisfied with the way you pulled Patty out of the water. If such an accident had happened in a river, or in the open sea, I am afraid some of you would have been in danger yourselves." Miss Latimer proved a true prophet, and Patty found that long before the summer term was over she was able to both dive and float, as well as swim easily round the bath. She was delighted with her new accomplishment, and began to plan already whether it would be possible to persuade her father to leave his patients and take his family to the seaside for a few weeks during the holidays, so that she might have the satisfaction of teaching the little ones what she had learnt herself.