everything being done according to
strict rule.

Both at once, as if by a single effort, they dipped the oars and lay
back, pulling with all their might, and then a struggle began to
display their strength. They had come out easily, under sail, but the
breeze had died away, and the masculine pride of the two brothers was
suddenly aroused by the prospect of measuring their powers. When they
went out alone with their father they plied the oars without any
steering, for Roland would be busy getting the lines ready, while he
kept a lookout in the boat's course, guiding it by a sign or a word:
"Easy, Jean, and you, Pierre, put your back into it." Or he would say,
"Now, then, number one; come, number two--a little elbow grease."
Then the one who had been dreaming pulled harder, the one who had got
excited eased down, and the boat's head came round.

But to-day they meant to display their biceps. Pierre's arms were
hairy, somewhat lean but sinewy; Jean's were round and white and rosy,
and the knot of muscles moved under the skin.

At first Pierre had the advantage. With his teeth set, his brow knit,
his legs rigid, his hands clenched on the oar, he made it bend from
end to end at every stroke, and the _Pearl_ was veering landward.
Father Roland, sitting in the bows, so as to leave the stern seat to
the two women, wasted his breath shouting, "Easy, number one; pull
harder, number two!" Pierre pulled harder in his frenzy, and "number
two" could not keep time with his wild stroke.

At last the skipper cried: "Stop her!" The two oars were lifted
simultaneously, and then by his father's orders Jean pulled alone for
a few minutes. But from that moment he had it all his own way; he grew
eager and warmed to his work, while Pierre, out of breath and
exhausted by his first vigorous spurt, was lax and panting. Four times
running father Roland made them stop while the elder took breath, so
as to get the boat into her right course again. Then the doctor
humiliated and fuming, his forehead dropping with sweat, his cheeks
white, stammered out:

"I cannot think what has come over me; I have a stitch in my side. I
started very well, but it has pulled me up."

Jean asked: "Shall I pull alone with both oars for a time?"

"No, thanks, it will go off."

And their mother, somewhat vexed, said:

"Why, Pierre, what rhyme or reason is there in getting in such a
state. You are not a child."

And he shrugged his shoulders and set to once mo