in, being a mere feather-weight,
and quick-witted enough to serve well in the important office where
brains are more needed than muscle.

There was also an eight-oared boat belonging to the University, and rowed
by a picked crew of stalwart young fellows. The bow oar and captain of
the University crew was a powerful young man, who, like the captain of
the girls' boat, was a noted gymnast. He had had one or two quiet trials
with Miss Euthymia, in which, according to the ultras of the woman's
rights party, he had not vindicated the superiority of his sex in the way
which might have been expected. Indeed, it was claimed that he let a
cannon-ball drop when he ought to have caught it, and it was not disputed
that he had been ingloriously knocked over by a sand-bag projected by the
strong arms of the young maiden. This was of course a story that was
widely told and laughingly listened to, and the captain of the University
crew had become a little sensitive on the subject. When there was a
talk, therefore, about a race between the champion boats of the two
institutions there was immense excitement in both of them, as well as
among the members of the Pansophian Society and all the good people of
the village.

There were many objections to be overcome. Some thought it unladylike
for the young maidens to take part in a competition which must attract
many lookers-on, and which it seemed to them very hoidenish to venture
upon. Some said it was a shame to let a crew of girls try their strength
against an equal number of powerful young men. These objections were
offset by the advocates of the race by the following arguments. They
maintained that it was no more hoidenish to row a boat than it was to
take a part in the calisthenic exercises, and that the girls had nothing
to do with the young men's boat, except to keep as much ahead of it as
possible. As to strength, the woman's righters believed that, weight for
weight, their crew was as strong as the other, and of course due
allowance would be made for the difference of weight and all other
accidental hindrances. It was time to test the boasted superiority of
masculine muscle. Here was a chance. If the girls beat, the whole
country would know it, and after that female suffrage would be only a
question of time. Such was the conclusion, from rather insufficient
premises, it must be confessed; but if nature does nothing per
saltum,--by jumps,--as the old adage has it, youth is very apt