Once in the water a deep lassitude once more descends upon the party as if they had by now forgotten their intention and they may wallow there with low notes of complaint for many minutes The movements that at length remove them from the immediate vicinity of the house are so gradual as to pass practically unnoticed but finally they are swimming so low in the water that their noses seem held above it by a last effort of ebbing strength their rolling eyes proclaiming that this is the end at last and that they are drowning So patient and protesting and more or less submerged they spend the day among the reeds and the bulrushes grazing leisurely upon such green shoots as their antediluvian heads may find at eye level