blue
flannel, and spattered all over with varnish and paint, for the captain
was painter as well as cook. Of course all this was exchanged for proper
attire after working hours.

In the cool of the morning, three fine young fellows are running towards
us over the bridge; with lithe and easy step, speed but not haste, and in
white flannel and white shoes. They have come to contend at the regatta
here, the first of an invasion of British oarsmen, who soon fill the
lodgings, cover the river, and waken up the footpath early with their
rattling run. Some of these are brown-faced watermen from Thames and
Humber and Tyne, others are ruddy-cheeked Etonians or University men, or
hard-trained Londoners, and others have come over the Atlantic; John
Bull's younger brothers from New Brunswick, not his cousins from New
York. You might pick out among these the finest specimens of our
species, so far as pluck and muscle make the man.

Few of the French oarsmen could be classed with any of the divisions
given above. Rowing has not attained the position in France which it
holds in England. For much of our excellence in athletics and field
sports we have to thank our well-abused English climate, which always
encourages and generally necessitates some sort of exercise when we are
out of doors.

But it is a new and healthy sight on the Seine, these fine fellows
running in the mornings, and it gives zest to our walk by the beautiful
river.

Here also as we stroll about, two dogs gave us much amusement: one was a
Newfoundland, who dashed into the water grandly to fetch the stick thrown
in by his master. The other was a bulldog, who went in about a yard or
so at the same time, and then as the swimmer brought the stick to shore
the intruder fastened on it, and always managed somehow to wrest the
prize from the real winner, and then carried it to his master with the
cool impudence which may be seen not seldom when the honour and reward
gained by one person are claimed and even secured by another. {102}

From the truck to the keel the Rob Roy had been thoroughly refreshed and
beautified. The perfection of a yacht's beauty is that nothing should be
there for only beauty's sake. In the strict observance of this rule the
English certainly do excel every other nation; and whether you take a
huge steam-engine, a yacht, or a four-in-hand drag, it is certainly
acknowledged by the best connoisseurs of each, that ornament will not
make a b