Maria Assin
/It Wasn't For Want Of Trying
There was this rubber canoe, see.
It was a new acquisition for MARIA ASSIN. Maria works all week in an office and spends all weekends out-of-doors. That way a girl manages to keep pretty and vital.
Maria had the darnedest trouble launching the canoe and even more trying to get into it. It couldn't have been more difficult trying to get on the neck of an elephant with a rope ladder.
There's a classical method of launching and paddling a canoe, of course One, you swoosh it into the water. Two, you sling your left leg over the starboard side. Three, you sling your right leg in. Four - as Maria found out - you fall flat on your face over the port side. No one can say Maria didn't try. She did. Both classical and unclassical methods. The canoe remained obdurately determined, Maria likewise. It became a fight to the finish.
"Pardon me," called a wag from dry land, "but watch out for the torpedoes.
'Blow the torpedoes,' said Maria, "I'm in at last and now it's full steam ahead.
It's one thing to be an obdurately determined young lady, and quite another to be over-confident.
It wasn't the torpedoes.
It was the canoe.
It gave a wet cough and Maria went overboard. Not for the first time, either. "You're all wet, " called the wag from the bank.
"So are you," said Maria.
