“Right through the year,” returned Dunn, hotly. “You don’t believe me, but you wait and see!” With this bold assertion on his lips, Dunn made for his room. The door was just closing behind him when Roger called out, “Oh, Jason!” Dunn returned, closed the door and backed against it. “Aren’t you going to play ball at all?” “No; what’s the use? If I can’t play on the team, I might as well cut the whole thing out and study.” “You can’t study all the time. You might come out just the same and play on the second and pitch for batting practice. It would show the right spirit, and the fellows would appreciate it. You know how they all felt about Sumner.” “I won’t do it,” answered Dunn, stubbornly. “I’ve been cut off from the team, and now it’ll have to get along without me. Sumner always had a chance to get on the team again; I’m out of it for good.” The time had come for the crews to take to the river. The Boston schools row under the patronage of the Boston Athletic Association, which provides boats and coaches, arranges for the races, and furnishes prizes. Each school enters two fours, a first and second, which compete in separate races. As Westcott’s possessed a pair-oar of her own, there were places in the boats for ten men exclusive of the coxswains. Talbot narrowed down his squad to eleven, allowing an extra man for accidents and illness, and getting rid of the rest by the easy method of not inviting them to report on the river. Hardie, to his delight, received orders to bring his rowing clothes to the boat-house. He did so fully conscious that his destination was neither the first nor the second. Talbot had said nothing to this effect,—indeed, Talbot, now that the rowing season was actually to begin, abated something of his intimacy,—but there was a general agreement as to the provisional formation of the crews which was almost authoritative. Of the new men who had come out, three had shown promise of skill as oarsmen. One of them was Bursley, a quiet fellow who came in every day from a suburb a dozen miles out, tall, muscular, and teachable. Louis Tracy was another, and finally McDowell, who, though he had grown during the year, was still undersized. On the first crew were to be tried—so the report ran—Talbot, Bursley, Eaton, and Pitkin; on the second, Weld, Sumner, L. Tracy, and McDowell; Wilmot, Hardie, and Redfield would thus be left over for the pair-oar.