Swimming- Good exercise
Most animals can swim right off the first time they go into the water. Dogs, horses, deer, and buffaloes do not have to be taught to swim. But a man cannot swim until he learns how to swim. Someone who knows has to show him how it is done.
Everybody should know how to swim. And it is best to learn when we are young. A boy or a girl can learn much more quickly than a grown-up person. Yet many people cannot swim at all. They say that even some sailors, who pass all their lives on the sea, do not know how to swim.
Why should we learn to swim? First, because it is a very good form of exercise, indeed doctors say it is the best exercise because in swimming all the muscles of the body are used.
Secondly, swimming gives great pleasure. How nice it is, on a hot dusty day in summer, to take off one’s clothes and plunge into the cool water of a river or the sea, and to dive and swim and float until one is tired!
Thirdly, swimming may sometimes mean all the difference between life and death. We never know when we may be in danger from water. We go on a voyage, and the ship is wrecked; for a pleasure sail on a lake, and the boat upsets; we slip as we are walking along the bank of a river, and fall into the water. If we can swim, we have a chance of saving our life; but if we cannot swim, we are pretty certain to be drowned. So for our safety, we should learn to swim.
Lastly, if we can swim, we may be able to save other people from drowning. How fine it is to be able to save another’s life! How sad, to see a friend drowning before our eyes, when we cannot help him, because we cannot swim.
