the
floating flowers, and near enough to reach them. He stooped and snatched
them up, with the loss perhaps of a second in all,--no more. He felt sure
of his victory.

How can one tell the story of the finish in cold-blooded preterites? Are
we not there ourselves? Are not our muscles straining with those of
these sixteen young creatures, full of hot, fresh blood, their nerves all
tingling like so many tight-strained harp-strings, all their life
concentrating itself in this passionate moment of supreme effort? No!
We are seeing, not telling about what somebody else once saw!

--The bow of the Algonquin passes the stern of the Atalanta!

--The bow of the Algonquin is on a level with the middle of the Atalanta!

--Three more lengths' rowing and the college crew will pass the girls!

--"Hurrah for the Quins!" The Algonquin ranges up alongside of the
Atalanta!

"Through with her!" shouts the captain of the Algonquin.

"Now, girls!" shrieks the captain of the Atalanta.

They near the line, every rower straining desperately, almost madly.

--Crack goes the oar of the Atalanta's captain, and up flash its
splintered fragments, as the stem of her boat springs past the line,
eighteen inches at least ahead of the Algonquin.

Hooraw for the Lantas! Hooraw for the Girls! Hooraw for the Institoot!
shout a hundred voices.

"Hurrah for woman's rights and female suffrage!" pipes the small voice of
The Terror, and there is loud laughing and cheering all round.

She had not studied her classical dictionary and her mythology for
nothing. "I have paid off one old score," she said. "Set down my damask
roses against the golden apples of Hippomenes!"

It was that one second lost in snatching up the bouquet which gave the
race to the Atalantas.

III

THE WHITE CANOE.

While the two boats were racing, other boats with lookers-on in them were
rowing or sailing in the neighborhood of the race-course. The scene on
the water was a gay one, for the young people in the boats were, many of
them, acquainted with each other. There was a good deal of lively talk
until the race became too exciting. Then many fell silent, until, as the
boats neared the line, and still more as they crossed it, the shouts
burst forth which showed how a cramp of attention finds its natural
relief in a fit of convulsive exclamation.

But far away, on the other side of the lake, a birchbark canoe was to be
seen, in which sat a young man, who paddled it