several hours, with their legs hanging over the sides, waiting for the
_Hattie Palmer_ to come along and give them their supper.

A great number of Americans--and I am one of them--would have preferred
to see _Defender_ built on the American centreboard plan, all of
American material, and without borrowing British ideas, especially as to
the boom. They were sorry to hear that Mr. Gould last year wanted Mr.
Ratsey, _Valkyrie_'s sail-maker, to make _Vigilant_'s sails, and they
were very glad when the loyal and patriotic Ratsey (credit be to him for
it!) refused to take the order. But, after all, this great number of
Americans has nothing to say in the matter, and all they--and I--want is
to see _Defender_ win by fair means the matches she was built to race
in, and the Cup she was built to defend.

[Illustration: INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORT]

The only school in this country that I know of where rowing takes the
leading position in sports is St. Paul's of Concord. There is rowing
done at other schools, of course, as at Cascadilla, near Ithaca, and at
St. John's, Delafield, Wisconsin, but at none of these institutions has
the art reached the stage of perfection which characterizes the work of
the St. Paul's oarsmen. It is doubtless because rowing has been indulged
in there for almost twenty-five years, whereas at the other schools I
have mentioned boating is a comparative novelty. It is growing in
popularity as a scholastic sport, however, and in a few years I have no
doubt that every school situated close enough to a lake or a river will
have a crew, just as almost every school nowadays has an eleven and a
nine.

It was in 1871 that the two rowing clubs were formed at St. Paul's, and
the scholars divided about evenly in the membership of each. Since then
the interest and enthusiasm in the sport have grown so steadily, that
the annual race in June between the Halcyon and Shattuck crews is looked
upon as the principal athletic event of the school year. Each club puts
three crews on the water--a first crew of eight men and a cockswain,
using a regular racing-shell; a second crew of six men and a cockswain,
using a gig; and a third crew of four men and a cockswain, also using a
gig. Captains are elected for every crew, and the captains of the first
crews are the captains of their clubs. The rowing is done on Lake
Penacook, which affords a very good mile-and-a-half course, and is
within easy distance of the school building