o stop his laughter, which was half genuine and half
pretence, by ordering him out of the room. Even then we heard him
ha-ha-ing outside. Poor Alfred was terribly mortified, and did not
recover his composure even when the school-hours were over, and the
first greeting he received, on emerging from the house, was from Drake,
who immediately mimicked Alfred's mistake, and performed a variety of
antics supposed to proceed from convulsions of mirth. On the way to the
boat, Drake continued to tease Alfred. Walter reproved him continually,
and even took hold of him once to compel him to stop; but he was in one
of his most boisterous moods, and was so very funny that he kept every
one but Alfred in shouts of laughter. But Alfred lashed him with the
bitterest satire, and, as they say, sometimes "made him laugh on the
other side of his mouth," until by the time we had reached the bay Drake
had subsided into silence, and the tight closing of his lips, and quick
walk, proved that Alfred's sharp wit was more fatal than Drake's broad
fun. Both of the boys rowed sullenly, and we all felt that a storm was
brewing. In the final round, when we made the course at our best and
timed the performance, so as to notice what improvement we were making,
Alfred caught a crab with his oar, in consequence of which the head of
Drake's oar hit him sharply in the back. The mortification of a miss
stroke is enough to anger a boatman, but coming as it did after the
morning's blunder in class, and made, too, a pain of the flesh by
Drake's blow, it was too much for Alfred's temper, and as Drake
increased the irritation by calling him an "awkward lout," and then
mimicking the blunder of translation with the accompaniment of a shout
of laughter, Alfred turned quickly, and hit his opponent a stinging blow
in the face.

In a moment the two boys grappled each other, and in a shorter period
than it takes my pen to write it, the boat was upset, and we were all in
the water. The combatants still clung to one another, and disappeared
together. The adage, however, that "discretion is the better part of
valour," enforced by such a deep, cold plunge, bore proof; for the irate
youths came to the surface apart, and we all struck out for the rocks,
distant about eighty yards. We climbed like half-drowned rats up the
shore, where the fight was not resumed. Its very strange continuation
was postponed until the Saturday after the boat-race, which must be
reser