Page:Diary of a Pilgrimage (1891).pdf/226

 all over the floor. And then all the folks you have invited into the kitchen to witness this triumph of science, they say "Oh! Damn!" too, and skip about in a disorderly manner, and flick their feet in the air, and rush out into the passage, where they sit down on the cool oilcloth, and try to take off both boots at once.

I do not know how it is, but I have generally found a certain amount of variance between theory and practice. I remember they told me, when I was learning swimming, that if I lay flat on my back, with my arms extended, and kept perfectly still, I could not sink—not even if I wanted to. I don't know why they should have thought that I wanted to; but they evidently considered that there was a chance