"Hold up a second!" he shouted.

Half a dozen strong strokes brought him to my side, and before I could explain or decline, he had gripped me by the two shoulders and was punting me ignominiously towards the shore.
It was a painful situation for me; the more so that I was quite done up and scarcely able to stagger out of the water into the arms of my affrighted relatives.
"Lay him on his back and work his arms up and down till you get all the water out of him, and then put him between hot blankets," cried my preserver, "and he'll be all serene.

They ought to make a shallow place somewhere for these kids to bathe, where they won't get out of their depths.

Bless you, ma'am," added he, in reply to my mother's thanks, "it's not worth talking of.

It all comes in a day's work, and you're very welcome." I was rather glad to leave the seaside after that; and whenever in the course of my future readings I came upon any further reference to emergency number one, I discreetly passed it over.
But hope springs eternal in the human breast, and the resources of heroism were by no means exhausted.
The drowning business had missed fire.