ost into
enthusiasm and forgetfulness of his maladies, so that he raised
no objection to a five o'clock dinner, and an adjournment to the
river almost immediately afterwards. Jervis, who was all-powerful
on the river, at Tom's instigation got an arm-chair for him in
the best part of the University barge, while the ladies, after
walking along the bank with Tom and others of the crew, and being
instructed in the colors of the different boats, and the meaning
of the ceremony, took their places in the front row on the top of
the barge, beneath the awning and the flags, and looked down with
hundreds of other fair strangers on the scene, which certainly
merited all that Tom had said of it on faith.

The barges above and below the University barge, which occupied
the post of honor, were also covered with ladies, and
Christchurch Meadow swarmed with gay dresses and caps and gowns.
On the opposite side the bank was lined with a crowd in holiday
clothes, and the punts plied across without intermission loaded
with people, till the groups stretched away down the towing path
in an almost continuous line to the starting place. Then one
after another of the racing-boats, all painted and polished up
for the occasion, with the college flags drooping at their
sterns, put out and passed down to their stations, and the bands
played, and the sun shone his best. And then, after a short pause
of expectation, the distant bank became all alive, and the groups
all turned one way, and came up the towing path again, and the
foremost boat with the blue and white flag shot through the Gut
and came up the reach, followed by another, and another, and
another, till they were tired of counting, and the leading boat
was already close to them before the last had come within sight.
And the bands played up all together, and the crowd on both sides
cheered as the St. Ambrose boat spurted from the Cherwell, and
took the place of honor at the winning-post, opposite the
University barge, and close under where they were sitting.

"Oh, look, Katie dear; here they are. There's Tom, and Mr. Hardy,
and Mr. Jervis;" and Mary waved her handkerchief and clapped her
hands, and was in an ecstasy of enthusiasm, in which her cousin
was no whit behind her. The gallant crew of St. Ambrose were by
no means unconscious of, and fully appreciated, the compliment.

Then the boats passed up one by one; and, as each came opposite
to the St. Ambrose boat, the crews tossed their