e
paddle. The manager watched him for a minute, and turned to his
work with an aspiration that he might not come to grief.

But no thought of grief was on Tom's mind as he dropped gently
down, impatient for the time when he should pass the mouth of the
Cherwell, and so, having no longer critical eyes to fear, might
put out his whole strength, and give himself at least if not the
world, assurance of a waterman.

The day was a very fine one, a bright sun shining, and a nice
fresh breeze blowing across the stream, but not enough to ruffle
the water seriously. Some heavy storms up Gloucestershire way had
cleared the air, and swollen the stream at the same time; in
fact, the river was as full as it could be without overflowing
its banks--a state in which, of all others, it is the least safe
for boating experiments. Fortunately, in those days there were no
outriggers. Even the racing skiffs were comparatively safe craft,
and would now be characterized as tubs; while the real tubs (in
one of the safest of which the prudent manager had embarked our
hero) were of such build that it required considerable ingenuity
actually to upset them.

If any ordinary amount of bungling could have done it, Tom's
voyage would have terminated within a hundred yards of the
Cherwell. While he had been sitting quiet and merely paddling,
and almost letting the stream carry him down, the boat had
trimmed well enough; but now, taking a long breath, he leaned
forward, and dug his sculls into the water, pulling them through
with all his strength. The consequence of this feat was that the
handles of the sculls came into violent collision in the middle
of the boat, the knuckles of his right hand were barked, his left
scull unshipped, and the head of his skiff almost blown round by
the wind before he could restore order on board.

"Never mind; try again," thought be, after the first sensation of
disgust had passed off, and a glance at the shore showed him that
there were no witnesses. "Of course, I forgot one hand must go
over the other. It might have happened to anyone. Let me see,
which hand shall I keep uppermost; the left, that's the weakest."
And away he went again, keeping his newly-acquired fact painfully
in mind, and so avoiding further collision amidships for four or
five strokes. But, as in other sciences, the giving of undue
prominence to one fact brings others inexorably on the head of
the student to avenge his neglect of them, so it hap