A crew of Johnians were rowing down the Cam on a fine summer day, in their own boat Two of them were freshmen--sixth form boys in manners and pursuits; the coxswain had entered on his third year, and was reading for honours. These were English youths. The fourth--Morgan ap Tydvill--was from Wales, a pleasant, companionable fellow, proud of his country, proud of his own family in particular, and proud of the boat, of which he was part owner; generous and friendly, but very choleric, though easily calmed down. The fifth was Gerald O'Mackerry, of Irish genealogy, as his name intimates, and his patronymic was a subject of much harmless pride with him. These two latter personages were in their second year. For some time the four rowers bent earnestly to their oars, the coxswain doing the principal part of the talking work; but as the stream carried the boat along, and there was no necessity for constant pulling, they at times restrained their arms to let their tongues run free. The chatting commenced thus:-- "We haven't given a name to the boat yet." "Well, I vote for the `Hose.'" "I think the `shamrock' sounds well," said O'Mackerry. "The Leek," was Ap Tydvill's suggestion. "`_Leek_!'--an unlucky name!" observed Green, the coxswain, who, though a gentlemen and a scholar, was sadly addicted to punning; but they were all of Saint John's College, and therefore punsters by prescription. This bad pun let out a good deal of punning; when it ceased to flow, the original subject was renewed. "Will the Trinity boat beat us next month? They have a choice crew, all in capital condition, and heavy men. O'Mack is the only twelve stone man here," (all gownsmen, you know, are _men_, however boyish in years and appearance), "and Tyd is such a little fellow!" "I'm five feet seven," replied he, rather snappishly; "and I can tell you that the mean height of a man's stature is but five feet four. (Murmurs of dissent.) O'Mack is about ten inches above the standard; but I'll back a man of my own height (drawing himself up majestically) against him for walking, jumping, running, fighting, wrestling, swimming, throwing a bar, or rowing a long distance--if he have my breadth of chest and shoulders, and such an arm as this," displaying a limb as hard and muscular as that of a blacksmith. By his own estimate he was of the perfect size and form. "In wrestling nimble, and in running swift; Well made to strike, to leap, to throw, to lift." His vanity, however, though quizzed unmercifully, was not humiliated by any detected failure in his bodily proportions, which he submitted to measurement. The circumference of his arm and wrist was considerable-- the whole limb and his chest brawny, hirsute, and muscular. "I'm not afraid of Trinity," shouted he loudly, if not musically. "_Sumamus longum haustum et fortem haustum, et haustum Omne simul_, as Lord Dufferin said at the Norwegian Symposium, and we shall bump them."