“I have so much to tell you about the crew this time and such a wonderful story of luck that I must answer your questions right off at the beginning or I shall surely forget to. You must let me know what boat you’re coming on in June so that I can meet you at the dock. It must seem funny to get two summers in the same year. If summer vacations went with them, I should like that myself. It is all right about the Comptons. I called there a long time ago. I did not want to go, but as you wanted me to, I went, and had a very decent time after all. They asked me to dinner a few days afterward. I had to accept because I couldn’t very well get out of it. They gave me a swell feed, and there were two girls there whom I had met at dancing school. Joe Compton is a conceited little mutt. I will make my party call when the rowing is over, as it will be after another week. I think I shall get recommendations for 16 points, though the English isn’t certain yet. You must not expect me to pass them all off. Nobody does that but the sharks, and you know I am not a shark. Jason Dunn, the boy you ask about who turned over a new leaf, keeps it turned all right, but as far as studies are concerned, it is still blank. You don’t need to ask me to help him, I couldn’t prevent it if I wanted to, as he studies in my room almost every night. I don’t dislike him as I used to. I will order the new suit, but I think the old one would do, and I could spend the money more profitably on something else. The boys here don’t care much about outside clothes, though they’re terribly keen about having fresh socks and shirts every day, and they run wild on neckties. My laundry bill is a whopper. Now for the real news. “I rowed on the second a whole week. Of course we did not get a great deal of Caffrey, but Mike is pretty good, and Pete Talbot would tell me after the practice some special fault he had seen in me, and then I worked with all my might to straighten it out. I kept on getting accustomed to use my legs and run the leg motion into the body and arms (that doesn’t sound right, but it is the best I can do to explain it), and I found the work a lot easier. You see if you row with a fixed seat, the whole strain is on the back and arms, and the pull is with strength alone. On the sliding seat, you row against your stretcher (that’s the foot-board) and the legs furnish most of the power. The skill comes in in blending everything together in one easy, natural motion, and getting back to take your next stroke without checking the boat by the return of your slide. I could feel all along that I was gaining, though I was slow on the recover, and bungled my oar still. The fellows all seemed to think I was going to make good in the second, and I was delighted, for our second is about the best second on the river, and Mac sets a _perfectly wonderful_ stroke.