The Girl on the Boat - Penn State University

a thing, but, after all, why not? <strong>The</strong>re was the lake,
shining through the trees, a mere fifty yards away. What
could be more refreshing? He shed his pyjamas, and
climbed into the bathing-suit. And presently, looking
like the sun on a foggy day, he emerged from the house
and picked his way with gingerly steps across the
smooth surface of the lawn.
At this moment, from behind a bush where he had
been thriftily burying a yesterday’s bone, Smith the
bulldog waddled out on to the lawn. He drank in the
exhilarating air through an upturned nose which his
recent excavations had rendered somewhat muddy.
<strong>The</strong>n he observed Mr. Bennett, and moved gladly towards
him. He did not recognise Mr. Bennett, for he
remembered his friends principally by their respective
bouquets, so he cantered silently across the turf to take
a sniff at him. He was half-way across the lawn when
some of the mud which he had inhaled when burying
the bone tickled his lungs and he paused to cough.
Mr. Bennett whirled round; and then with a sharp
exclamation picked up his pink feet from the velvet
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Girl</strong> on the Boat
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turf and began to run. Smith, after a momentary pause
of surprise, lumbered after him, wheezing contentedly.
This man, he felt, was evidently one of the right sort, a
merry playfellow.
Mr. Bennett continued to run; but already he had
begun to pant and falter, when he perceived looming
upon his left the ruins of that ancient castle which had
so attracted him on his first visit. On that occasion, it
had made merely an aesthetic appeal to Mr. Bennett;
now he saw in a flash that its practical merits also were
of a sterling order. He swerved sharply, took the base
of the edifice in his stride, clutched at a jutting stone,
flung his foot at another, and, just as his pursuer arrived
and sat panting below, pulled himself on to a
ledge, where he sat with his feet hanging well out of
reach. <strong>The</strong> bulldog Smith, gazed up at him expectantly.
<strong>The</strong> game was a new one to Smith, but it seemed to
have possibilities. He was a dog who was always perfectly
willing to try anything once.
Mr. Bennett now began to address himself in earnest
to the task of calling for assistance. His physical dis-