With the inter-troop baseball series a thing of the past, Sanson and Trexler promptly turned their attention to swimming. They had already been out to the lake several times, but with baseball practise almost every day, it had not been possible to spend very much time there. Now, however, they both took advantage of every free afternoon, and before a great while Paul emerged from that first hopeless, helpless state when it seemed as if he were never going to be able even to support himself in the water. He was still far from being a good swimmer, but at least he could behold the miraculous ease and skill of the other fellows without a feeling of despondent envy. Frank Sanson naturally made much quicker progress. Knowing the rudiments, he did not, like Paul, have to start at the very beginning. His strength and endurance, too, were greater than his friend's, and he had practically none of Trexler's nervous timidity to combat. All he needed was practise, and he was not long graduating from the novice class. The latter was uncommonly large this year. It was the first time the boys had had the freedom of Crystal Lake, and practically every scout who did not know how to swim seemed bent on learning before the summer camp started. Many of the enthusiasts went out there every afternoon, while Saturdays always saw a big crowd, most of whom brought their lunch and made a day of it. As a matter of course, since swimming could not very well be indulged in all the time, there developed a great variety of scout sports and activities. Often a scoutmaster or two showed up, and by dint of a little suggestion would introduce among the purely entertaining games one designed to test the boys' ability at signaling or first aid, or his knowledge of tracking and trailing and woodcraft generally. The system was entirely successful. Fellows who lacked the ambition or push to acquire these important details of scouting--and there are always such in every troop--found themselves, to their surprise, absorbing the knowledge through the medium of a game or competition. More often than not they discovered that it wasn't so hard or uninteresting as they supposed, and in many cases real enthusiasm developed. Moreover, members of the different troops came to know and understand each other in a way which would have been impossible without this close and constant companionship. Hitherto they had kept pretty much to themselves, each boy traveling mainly with his own crowd and generally meeting the others as opponents on gridiron or diamond.