“We started down just as an inferior college eight came along, pulling a regulation good hard stroke. Caffrey said: ‘We may as well race this eight now they are here,’ and started us up. He is heavy, but he knows more about managing a crew than all the other coxes together, and everybody has confidence in him and doesn’t get rattled. He pushed us along as fast as we could go to a bridge. We had a fraction of a length start, but we gained until we went through the bridge a length ahead of the other crew. Of course the eight was not racing, but it was pretty good for us, to spurt a four-oar faster than an eight goes when rowing at a good pace. This was not one of the Varsity eights, of course, but an upper class eight, or a club eight. It would have been the height of ridiculousness and especially of freshness to row against the freshmen or the 2d or 3d Varsity. After a short stop to tell us what he wanted us to do, we went all the way back to the boat-house without a break and at a good pace. On the way down Caffrey talked to us, telling us how to save strength or favor some muscle, and trying to get us to rest on the recovery. “I was dead tired when we got to the boat-house, but I think I pulled just as hard on the tired stretch as at any other time, excepting, of course, the race. I think Caffrey raced us to give us confidence and to get us into the habit of not getting rattled. And now for the most important thing of all. _I was promoted to the second._ It was because I pulled so hard and didn’t give in or weaken. Pete told me so while we were dressing. Weld must take the pair-oar. I’m out of that. I may get kicked back in a little while, but it will not be from lack of effort on my part if I do. I would rather make the second crew than anything else (except the first), as that means something; for our crews are in a different class from any of our other teams, and 2d crew this year means _1st crew next year_ (if I can possibly make it)! “That was on Tuesday. Since then I’ve been rowing on the second every practice without being kicked, but I live in a continual state of terror that some one will oust me from my place. Of course there’s only Wilmot and Weld, and Wilmot’s too short and fat to be any good, while Weld is not supposed to have the staying power, but I shan’t be free from worry until the race starts (and that’s still nearly three weeks off). Even if I can hold my place, I might get sick or hurt somehow, and so be thrown out.