oars and cheered,
and the St. Ambrose crew tossed their oars and cheered in return;
and the whole ceremony went off in triumph, notwithstanding the
casualty which occurred to one of the torpids. The torpids, being
filled with the refuse of the rowing men--generally awkward or
very young oarsmen--find some difficulty in the act of
tossing--no safe operation for an unsteady crew. Accordingly, the
torpid in question, having sustained her crew gallantly till the
saluting point, and allowed them to get their oars fairly into
the air, proceeded gravely to turn over on her side, and shoot
them out into the stream.

A thrill ran along the top of the barges, and a little scream or
two might have been heard even through the notes of "Annie
Laurie", which were filling the air at the moment; but the band
played on, and the crew swam ashore, and two of the punt-men laid
hold of the boat and collected the oars, and nobody seemed to
think anything of it.

Katie drew a long breath.

"Are they all out, dear?" she said; "can you see? I can only
count eight."

"Oh, I was too frightened to look. Let me see; yes, there are
nine; there's one by himself, the little man pulling the weeds
off his trousers."

And so they regained their equanimity, and soon after left the
barge, and were escorted to the hall of St. Ambrose by the crew,
who gave an entertainment there to celebrate the occasion, which
Mr. Winter was induced to attend and pleased to approve, and
which lasted till it was time to dress for the ball, for which a
proper chaperone had been providentially found. And so they
passed the days and nights of Commemoration.

But is not within the scope of this work to chronicle all their
doings--how, notwithstanding balls at night, they were up to
chapel in the morning, and attended flower-shows at Worcester and
musical promenades in New College, and managed to get down the
river for a picnic at Nuneham, besides seeing everything that was
worth seeing in all the colleges. How it was done, no man can
tell; but done it was, and they seemed only the better for it
all. They were waiting at the gates of the Theatre amongst the
first, tickets in hand, and witnessed the whole scene, wondering
no little at the strange mixture of solemnity and license, the
rush and crowding of the undergraduates into their gallery, and
their free and easy way of taking the whole proceedings under
their patronage, watching every movement in the amphitheatre a