erson was to be captain of the 'Varsity XI., and Jack
was immediately put into one of the trial Eights and finally, rowed six
in the winning boat. The shadow of approaching examinations was over
all of us except Henderson, who was not reading for Honours, and had
nothing but two papers on political economy between him and a degree.
But I should not think any four men ever got on together better than we
did, and the mere sight of Jack was enough to make any one feel
cheerful. He had fairly and squarely found himself at last, and
whether he was sitting in front of piles of books or getting up and
going to bed at strange times because he was in training, he was an
endless delight to all of us. His methods of reading history made Fred
laugh so much that I thought he might possibly abandon them, but
nothing would persuade him that his road to a degree was not the safest
he could take. On one subject Jack only opened his heart to me. He
had set his mind on getting into the 'Varsity Eight, and his keenness
was terrific. I assured him time after time that he must have a
splendid chance of his blue, but I don't believe that the mere fact of
getting his blue meant very much to him. He wanted to show his people
and his college that he could really do something.

"If I could only get into the 'Varsity boat I should have done
something," he said to me, "because I'm not a natural oar. I have to
learn it all, and it's frightfully hard work remembering all you're
told. Some of you men think a fellow who rows is just a machine, but
it's not so easy to become a good machine."

To Fred and Henderson he hardly ever mentioned the river, but they knew
how desperately keen he was, and when he was tried in the 'Varsity boat
at four, during the beginning of the Lent Term, we all hoped most
vigorously that he would keep his place. For nearly a fortnight the
same crew rowed every day, but neither the President nor the Secretary
had yet taken their places, and I was in a state of terror that Jack
would have to go when they went into the boat. The Secretary, however,
took his place and Jack remained where he was, and a few days
afterwards the President went in at seven, seven went to three, and one
unfortunate man disappeared. Then we openly rejoiced, and at the
beginning of Lent Jack was told to go into training. We had a mild
celebration on the evening of Shrove Tuesday, and Bunny Langham, who
had been President of the Union and had