"I am glad you did, sir," added Matt. "I was inclined to lay hands on him after his impudence at the beginning." "He came to see you, I suppose?" "Yes, sir. He is with a party, and there are five of them. They have chartered a schooner, and intend to spend the summer on the lake. Spickles invited me on board of the vessel, and insisted that I should go with him. I refused." "The less you have to do with such a fellow as that, the better it will be for you, though it may be all the worse for him," added the principal. "Spickles told me they had just tapped a keg of beer." "Of course! the fellow has made considerable progress in the downward road." After supper the students embarked in the barges for a row, and for practice with the oars. As during the last season, there were three of these boats, the Gildrock and the Winooski, each of twelve oars, and the Marian of eight oars. The crews had been re-organized; and the two larger boats were preparing for a race, each against the other. Matt Randolph was the coxswain of the Winooski, and Dory Dornwood of the Gildrock; for the crew of each had selected the most skilful boatman in the school to get them in condition for this race. For the last year the students had been on tolerably peaceable terms with the members of the Chesterfield Collegiate Institute, on the other side of the lake; and it was possible that a race would be arranged with them for the Fourth of July. The two barges were careful to keep away from each other during their practice. The two coxswains, though on the most friendly terms, never talked about the coming race. If either had any points, he wanted to keep them to himself. Each of them had a system of his own in the method of rowing, and each kept his own counsel. Matt Randolph, for these reasons, did not immediately follow the Gildrock when she left the boat-house, but went up to the head of Beechwater. As soon as the rival craft had passed out of the little lake, the Winooski followed her. The coxswain saw that the party on board of the La Motte, which lay just below the entrance of the creek into the river, hailed the Gildrock when she went by her. But Dory took no notice of them; and Matt concluded that he had not been addressed in civil tones, or he would have replied. "I wonder what that schooner is that lies in the river," said Ash Burton, who pulled the stroke-oar in the Winooski. "She has been there all the afternoon, and a boat from her went up into Beechwater a while ago." "That is the schooner La Motte; and she has a party of young fellows on board of her who are going to spend the summer on the lake," replied the coxswain, loud enough for all in the barge to hear him. "They are hoisting the mainsail," added the stroke-oarsman. "That looks as though they were going out of the river." "If they are going to leave these parts, I am glad of it," said Matt in a lower tone. "Why are you glad of it, Matt?" asked Ash curiously.