and
disagreement had been continual, and several more tangible collisions,
where blows had been exchanged between them, were nipped in the bud by
Walter and the others of us, and once by the Captain, who, wrought up by
their quarrelsomeness, separated them pretty fiercely, and, holding each
at arm's length, told them that, if there was any fighting to be done
among his crew, he must have a hand in it. Then he laughed one of his
bars of rollicking "ha-has," and dropped the boys with the injunction
that if they had another "mill," he should certainly let their fathers
know. "Now, boys, try if you cannot get along better, and when you have
a quarrel again, bring it to Mr Clare or to me, and we will settle it
better than your blows and frowns can do."

You remember how Drake knocked Alfred from the footboard of his bed on
the occasion of our night meeting to get up the boat-race. That was a
good example of Drake's reckless rudeness, proceeding merely from his
boisterous disposition, but somehow those outbreaks were always directed
to Alfred, just as the rough points of Alfred's disposition were sure to
be turned to Drake. That fall had hurt Alfred, and from the date of the
commencement of our boat-practice, the war between the two had waxed
hotter and hotter. The contest seemed only to amuse Harry Higginson,
but Walter--our mentor, my conscientious, tender-hearted brother, who
led us all in games as well as in lessons--worried over it, and each day
he exhorted the two to govern their tempers, and, with great tact and
decision, whenever he saw a storm brewing, managed to throw oil upon the
waters. However, his influence did not heal up the difference, and in
about a fortnight, a few days before the intended race, there occurred
during our afternoon boat-practice a little row between the two
antagonists, which proved a final skirmish before the severe but
ludicrous battle which crowned the civil war.

We were rowing in Bath Bay as usual, Walter pulling the stroke oar, and
Harry Higginson the bow, whilst Drake and Alfred held the intermediate
positions, Drake sitting behind Alfred--that is, nearer the bow. I had
my place at the tiller.

Alfred Higginson had made a very ridiculous blunder in a French
translation that morning. Such a thing was unusual for him, and was
such a comical one that it set the others of the class in a roar of
laughter. Drake was so extravagantly affected by Alf's blunder that Mr
Clare had t