t," he answered; "poor excuses are worse than none. When I began
to read history, I wrote telegrams instead of essays, and I tried to
make my tutor talk so that he should fill up the time, just as you have
done. But I found out in a month that history is not a joke, and that
my tutor was not a fool. You have got to read seriously, whatever else
you may do; we may as well understand each other from the start."

I gathered up my essay slowly, for he had, as he spoke, scattered what
there was of it over the table.

"It would be better to use a note-book than any odd piece of paper that
happens to come your way," he said, and added, "if you are slack about
your work, you may end by being slack at other things."

"So you have been talking to Mr. Edwardes about me," I said, and I was
annoyed.

"Perhaps it would be truer to say that Mr. Edwardes has been talking to
me about you," he answered. "You will probably like history very much
if you will only give yourself a chance; don't think a fourth is any
good to you--or me."

"I'm only just through Mods," I replied, "you do go at a fearful rate."

"You will have to be bustled until you get interested," he answered,
"and I will bustle you all right, you can trust me to do that."

I expect that The Bradder knew that I should not care about being
bustled by him, and the result of his conversation with me was that he
got a great deal of essay out of me with very little trouble to
himself, though I thought that he was mistaken in making me start at
such a furious pace, and I asked him, without any effect, if he had
ever heard of men being overtrained.

Although no one expected our eight to make any bumps, I think they
astonished everybody by going down four places, and as we were being
bumped by colleges which were generally in danger of being bottom of
the river, a wholesome feeling spread over most of us that as a joke
our rowing was nearly played out. We began to talk about what we would
do next year, but Jack Ward was so disgusted with everything that he
suddenly determined that he had wasted nearly two years, and meant to
make up for lost time by doing everything with all his might.

I thought these terrific resolutions came from a row he had with
Dennison about cards, a disagreeable row in which Dennison said such
nasty things that had I been Jack, I should have picked him up and
dropped him out of the window; but by some extraordinary means Jack
kept his temper u