several days.

I say their leisure moments; for the affairs of the club were not
permitted to interfere with any of the usual duties of the members. At
home and at school, it was required that everything should be done well
and done properly. As may be supposed, this was not an easy matter for
boys whose heads were full of boats and boating; and about once a week
the coxswains found it advisable to read a lecture on the necessity of
banishing play during work hours. "Whatsoever thy hands find to do, do
it with all thy might," was a text so often repeated that it had
virtually become one of the articles of the constitution.

The boys felt the necessity of following this precept. They realized
enough of the law of cause and effect to be aware that, if their home
and school duties were neglected, or slovenly done, boating would soon
obtain a bad reputation; so both parents and teacher found that the
clubs were a great help rather than a hindrance in the performance of
their several functions.

So strongly were the Zephyrs impressed with the necessity of not
permitting the club to interfere with home and school duties, that, at
the latter part of their first season, they had established a rule by
which any member who wilfully neglected his duties should be, for a
certain time, excluded from the club. And this rule was not a dead
letter. One Wednesday forenoon Charles Hardy had wasted his time in
school, and failed in his lessons. On his slate was found a drawing of a
club boat, manned by certain ill-looking caricatures, which explained
the cause of the defection. An excursion had been planned for that
afternoon, and when Charles presented himself at the boat-house, he was
politely informed that he could not go. In vain he pleaded; Fred Harper,
who was coxswain at the time, was very civil and very gentle, but he was
inflexible. And the culprit had the satisfaction of sitting upon a rock
on shore, and seeing what a fine time the fellows were having.

The effect was decidedly salutary, and another case of such discipline
did not again occur. The boys, zealous to keep their favorite sport in
good repute, adopted the regulation for the present year, in both clubs.
Without such precautions as these it was plain that boating would soon
become a nuisance, which neither parents nor teachers would tolerate.
Therefore the members of the clubs made it a point to keep their
"voyages," their plans and schemes, out of their minds at