The rainbow never sets

We didn't have to be told twice. We went with him to the boat shed, not our usual swimming spot.

"Why are you taking us here?" we wanted to know. "Just wait and you'll see."

"First you need to learn the breast stroke movements. Arms like that É yes that's right, and feet like that."

"That's how frogs swim," said Günter in his matter of fact voice. "Yes, and that's how you are going to learn to swim."

Then he got a belt with braces out of his bag, and a strong line. He tied the line to the braces and said: "Who is going to be the first one?"

We both said "Me" at the same time, but as Günter is older, he got the nod from Vater first.

"Put the belt round your waist, and both arms through here. Now I'll tie it behind you, quite firm, can you feel it. I'll hold you on this rope, no matter what, do you understand?"

"Of course." And in he went to his waist in the water. "Now do your arm movements and lie flat on your stomach." Günter did just that, while Vater held him up, body in the water, but the head was well above.

"That's great, Günter, now try to do the leg movements." It took a bit longer, as they had to be synchronised, but he soon managed very well.

"Now comes the breathing. As you put your arms forward, you breathe out, and as you make the circle with your arms, you breathe in."

That did not go too well, but then it had been only the first day. My attempts were even poorer, but Vater had a lot of patience.

"Tomorrow we'll try again," he said. For the next few weeks we had our regular practice. Then he took us to the swimming spot where we had a long board going from the dressing shed right past the reeds, with a railing on one side, and a spring board at the end, where the water was quite deep.

"I'll give you a few more training sessions here," he said, "But I think you're now good enough to swim without the braces and the line."

Without us knowing, Vater had constantly loosened his hold on us until he held the line merely for 'just in case'. Another couple of days at the swimming spot, and he said:

"I'm not holding you now at all. You can swim, boys, congratulations." We were mighty proud.

"Tomorrow I'll give you a test." Next day, Vater was treading water at the end of the spring-board. "Now you go in at the steps and start swimming from there towards me, as you are."

I swam towards Vater, and then back again without stopping. The stretches became longer and longer until Vater said: "I'll give you two more days to practice, then you must swim for 15 minutes without

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