ain.

In the Lent term Jack rowed six in our Torpid, and also told me that he
thought he should try and get his blue for throwing the hammer. He had
never thrown the hammer in his life, but he said that he knew what it
was like and any one could throw it. I suppose that was true, but
Jack, when he tried, found that there were other men who could throw it
a greater distance than he could, which did not trouble him in the
least. He remarked that the hammer was a silly thing after all, and
that he should think of something else.

But the Torpid occupied so much of his time and attention that he gave
up seeking for a curious way in which to get his blue, and settled down
to train in a most determined manner. The sight of me eating muffins
for tea seemed to be almost an insult to him, I really believe that he
would have liked me to train with him, though I had nothing whatever to
train for. He did persuade me once to run round the Parks before
breakfast, but I didn't repeat the experiment, for I felt quite fit
without being restless in the early morning. Of course I had the
Torpid to breakfast, and their confidence in themselves was as great as
their appetites. You can't, I think, give breakfast to a Torpid and
like them at the same time, and I have never acted as host to a Torpid
or an Eight without being struck by the fact that of all men in the
world I was the most supremely unimportant. Occasionally Jack and
another man remembered that I was not very interested in the amount of
work the Corpus stroke did with his legs, and made as great an effort
to drag me into the conversation as I made to keep in it. But the
effort was very apparent on both sides, and I gave up when I heard that
seven in the Merton boat used his oar like a pump-handle, and that
there was not a single man in the Pembroke crew who pulled his own
weight. This last statement compelled me to ask if Pembroke hoisted a
sail on their boat and waited for a favourable wind, but my question
was treated with scorn, and I came to the usual conclusion that the
best place to see a Torpid collectively is in a boat.

The confidence of our men depressed me, for I had most conscientiously
played the part of host to previous Torpids and Eights, who had been
equally confident until the racing began. After that they had either
complained of their luck or their cox, and I asked Jack when I got him
by himself if he really thought our boat was going up.

"I don