“Girls, we’ve simply got to beat the seniors this time,” announced Isabel to her crew, as they made ready to take out the junior canoe one afternoon.

“I’d like to know how,” said one of the junior girls. “They have so many good paddlers and girls with a good deal of endurance, too. Then they are having regular practice, too.”

“Not any too regular,” said Isabel. “If I didn’t have to work so on that debate, I could do more, but after all, I think we can manage to get enough practice in if we are only determined enough. It’s determination and management that we need, girls. Now listen. The senior girls are interested in a lot of other things. There is the senior play, you know, and practices for that, besides the glee club and other things.”

“We are in those, too.”

“Some of them,” Isabel admitted. “But if we practice regularly and often say nothing to the seniors about our extra practice, and make up our minds to learn to paddle as no juniors ever did before, we shall win that race, depend upon it.”

“Some of those girls are your very best friends, Isabel. Can you and Virgie stoop to such base deception?”

“‘Base deception’ is good,” laughed Isabel. “How about it, Virgie? Didn’t I tell the girls that we were going to beat them in the canoe race?”

“You did.”

“Did they hesitate to beat us in the field meet? The answer is ‘no’! Will they be just as good friends of mine if we beat ’em? Yes. If they notice how we are practicing, will they care? No.”

“I think that the main thing is to learn to do it together,” said Virgie. “Most of this crew are pretty good paddlers, but we need to learn to make the stroke exactly together and practice speed. Nobody can lose her head at that critical time.”

“I should think not!” exclaimed Beatrice Lee, the junior who had rallied Isabel on deceiving her friends. “The seniors have ever so much on their minds, too. Commencement doings soon, and friends coming and everything,—clothes and all. It may be mean to gloat over hindrances to your enemies, but one can’t help thinking of those things when considering the chances.”

“We are not gloating, but we need encouragement when we think of entering any contest against that crew. There are Hilary and Pauline, strong as can be, and fine in any of the water sports. Then Eloise and Diane are wiry and quick, and the rest are right at home in a canoe. I felt a little discouraged when I thought about them, but then I began to think of our own crew, and I tell you girls, I feel sure that we can do it if we will!”

“Both shall and will, then,” declared Beatrice.

Later, on the same afternoon, the senior canoe came out. “Do you know, girls,” said Pauline, who was captain of the crew, “we shall have to do some good practicing. We have not rowed or paddled together since last year. The way we paddled the last time was a disgrace, everybody for herself!”

“Remember that it was the first time we had been out in the big canoe.”

“Yes, Diane, I know, but we must be accustomed to paddling together.”

“We did pretty well by the time we stopped.”

“‘Pretty well’ won’t do in a race. That is a good crew of juniors.”

“You are right, Pauline,” said Hilary. “If we want to beat we shall have to work.”

“Isabel declared that they were going to beat,” remarked Cathalina, who had come down to watch the proceedings. “They were out a long time this afternoon.”

“Is that so? Well, stand by me, girls, when I call a practice, and I believe that we can beat our ‘jolly juniors.’ Nobody is to worry, just work.”

Some of Isabel’s crew complained at times that she would not let them do anything else. “We can’t even get any swimming in, nothing but paddle, paddle, paddle,” said Beatrice, half in fun, half in earnest.

“Wait till this race is over and then you can swim all you want to. I have great hopes, for the seniors had not begun to paddle in their canoe until after the field meet, whereas we had some practice right away, as soon as the river was fit for it. Some of their crew are down in the lake swimming this minute, and if I’m any judge, Pauline will not be able to get them out till late.”

“Don’t you think this is fun, though, Beatrice?” asked Virgie, who thoroughly enjoyed the canoeing.

“Oh, yes, I do, but it is work, too. The senior academy crew is out today, let’s get them to race us. We ought to practice on paddling against them.”

“That is a good idea, Beatrice. It will be more fun. Hoo-hoo! Senior academy!”

The senior academy captain answered Isabel’s hail and agreed that it would be great fun to race. “Pretend that we are the senior collegiates,” said she.

“We will,” answered Isabel. “Let’s go back to the starting place and race as long as you feel like it.”

“Maybe we can beat you,” bravely spoke the academy captain.

“All right, mayhap you can. Try it. If you do, I’ll bring you a pan of fudge tonight.”

“I’d like that fudge, as scarce as candy is now.”

Laughing and joking the two crews paddled back to the place up the river from which the race always started, leaving a little group of judges at the tree which marked the goal. “Look out for them a little,” said Isabel to her crew. “They are pretty good, but if they get nervous, no telling what will happen. They are taking it seriously. Give them lots of room.”

“They are good,” said Virginia. “I watched them the other day when I was waiting for you all. But I think we can beat them.”

“Mercy, Virgie, if there is any doubt of that, let me ‘bend to my oars’!”

“They are only one class behind ourselves, remember, Beatrice.”

“Did you hear that, Martha, and the rest of you?”

Not having any one up river to give a signal, Isabel herself, after asking if the other crew were ready, gave it after her usual fashion,—“On your mark, get set, go!” Onward glided the two canoes, the girls all striving for absolutely correct paddling, and increasing speed as they thought necessary. The juniors had in mind the coming race and shot ahead very soon. The seniors, academy, redoubled their efforts in order to gain lost ground, and as they were not equal to the juniors either in strength or in practice, found it a difficult task. The juniors slowed down a little, because they had entered this race chiefly to see how it would seem to have company, most of the way, at least. The other crew thought this their opportunity, and with all their might sent their canoe ahead of the other. But, alas, one paddle “caught a crab,” as the girls said; her paddle flew out of her hands; she leaned after it, causing great disturbance among the crew, and the canoe, whirling across the stream, struck the junior canoe. In a moment the girls were in the river, both crews.

Isabel came up, blowing the water from her lips, and found Virgie opposite to her as both reached the overturned canoe and clung to it. Other heads were bobbing up around them.

“Virgie,” said Isabel, “You see if our girls are all here while I swim after the kids. I think they can all swim, but you never can tell what they may hit.”

Isabel did not stop to think that the girls were never permitted to go canoeing unless they could swim, but had very clearly in mind her own accident. The presence of one of the best swimmers in the school was of great encouragement to the younger girls, some of whom were frightened by the sudden overturning. All had come to the surface, however, and were swimming for dear life, or floating to rest. Isabel helped catch the canoe, but took one white-faced girl to shore immediately. It was not far, and there was no such current as there had been when Cathalina and Hilary had gone after Isabel.

“All’s well that ends well,” called Isabel as the other girls brought in the canoe. “You S. A’s won the race, if you did upset us to do it. I’ll be over with that fudge. At what time do you want it? I’ll make it right after dinner.”

“Just before study hours, Isabel. Will it be patriotic to eat it?”

“If it is patriotic to make it. But this is some sugar that Virgie had left over last year and we discovered it in a box she left at Greycliff. It was only hard, and isn’t hurt for candy.”

“Isn’t Isabel Hunt wonderful!” inquired the senior academy captain as Isabel left the group.

“Indeed she is. She can do anything.”

“It was good of the girls not to be mad at our accident, upsetting them and everything.”

“Oh, Isabel is like that. She wouldn’t be cross unless you meant to do something. And I think she felt responsible because they got us to race with them.”

The senior collegiates, meanwhile, heard that the senior academy had beaten the junior collegiates in a race, and Isabel did not enlighten them, nor would she say which of further conflicting reports were true. She only looked mysterious and remarked, “It was a sad blow. O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!”

“She quoteth Shakespeare, girls. It’s no use. Anyhow Mickey said that the two canoes upset.”

“Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,” continued Isabel, with a dramatic gesture. “By the way, I have to see Mickey. Please excuse me, fair hostesses.”

Virgie had offered to make the candy, and the girls of Lakeview Suite had beguiled Isabel into their headquarters in the hope of getting the truth about the latest excitement. Isabel had seen Mickey cross the front lawn and bethought herself of an errand.

“Mickey,” said she as soon as she had reached that busy man without whom it seemed Greycliff could scarcely exist. “Mickey, I wish that you would investigate that place in the river. I really believe that there is something sticking up that caught that girl’s paddle. And we are going to have some real races pretty soon.”

“Oi think the only ‘crab’ was hersilf, miss. She did not know how to handle a paddle,” returned Mickey.

“That may be. I know the girls were excited, but I thought when I was swimming after the girls that my feet hit something there.”

“All right, thin. Oi’ll row out tomorry.”

“Thank you, Mickey, a thousand times! If you have time now, I’ll show you where I think it is. Here are Bee and Martha now. Come on, girls, let’s show Mickey where we think there might really be a ‘crab’.”

The girls accompanied Mickey, showed him the exact spot at which the canoes upset, and on the following day, Mickey and one of the other men rowed out with a pole to investigate. There, indeed, he found part of an old tree that had doubtless drifted down with the early spring floods and had become lodged in the mud, and perhaps other driftwood at the bottom of the stream. The branch that was sticking up nearly to the surface was not very large, but sufficient to catch a paddle or oar. Some of the girls were watching, as Mickey dislodged the obstruction and it came to the surface, floating down and guided shoreward by the pole.

“There! I knew something caught my paddle the other day,” said one of the girls who had had a similar upset in a single canoe. “You all laughed so when I said that it had, that I did not dare speak of it again, but I was sure something caught my paddle. It was just those sprangling twigs.”

Everything was quite safe for democracy, then, on the day of the great event, the race between the juniors and seniors. The winning crew were to give a consolation party to the defeated, and the girls had amicably decided on the menu and ordered the feast together, through a committee from each class, including the captains of the crews. Pauline said that it might just as well be charged to the seniors, but Isabel, who was at the telephone, ordering something from Greycliff Village, soberly said, “Charge it, please, to the junior class, Isabel Hunt ordering. A check will be sent as soon as possible, the next day, in fact.”

Pauline laughed and said, “Well, if you do win, you will have to pay the price.”

“That’s the point of this fine old jamboree, to make the defeated feel good. I’m prepared to be jolly whoever wins, but of course we are going to win!”

“It is usual for the defeated to treat the other side.”

“Yes, adding insult to injury. We shall welcome the opportunity to entertain you!”

“How generous. Don’t you hope it will be fine weather?”

“We’ll have to put it off if it isn’t.”

But the day of the race was ideal. Never crews wore prettier bathing suits, ready for any experience like that of the junior and senior academy crews. Each canoe floated a little streamer of class colors and the crews were in the best of spirits. The Greycliff side of the river bank was lined with girls, spectators of this contest, so long prepared for, so soon over. Cathalina, Helen, Betty and Juliet selected a high point from which they declared they could see nearly the whole course, at least the finish.

“Which do you think has the better chance, Juliet?” asked Helen.

“Oh, ours, of course,” replied Juliet. “Our girls are so much more experienced. They have not had as much practice as I had hoped they might. Several times, when Pauline thought she had them all together, one or the other would have arranged to practice something or have some appointment with a teacher. But they do row beautifully together. It seemed almost perfect the last time I watched them.”

“O, of course, we’ll win,” said Betty.

Cathalina remained silent, considering the affair, as Cathalina was apt to do.

“You haven’t said a word, Cathalina,” said Betty. “Don’t you think we are going to win?”

“Ordinarily I would, and Isabel’s being so sure might be an argument against them if they were bluffing, as Phil says. But you don’t know how they have been working. I haven’t said anything because I knew our girls were giving all the time they really could to it, and they are more experienced in general than most of Isabel’s crew. So, girls, I don’t know how it will turn out, but I think I can tell you in about fifteen or twenty minutes!”

“So can we all.”

“Really, I should not mind if Isabel did beat. We beat them in the field meet and it’s their turn.”

“Why, Cathalina, where is your class spirit?” asked Helen.

“We shall have to deal with you,” said Juliet.

“Oh, Cathalina’s hopeless. She always sees the side of the other party as well as her own,” declared Betty. “Whatever happens, Cathalina adjusts herself in two minutes. You can’t disturb the even tenor of her way for long.”

“Why, Betty, did you get that remark from Father?”

“No, that is my own wise observation. It’s a real comfortable way, Cathalina, if not popular among what my brother calls boosters.”

“You’re a nice old Betty,” said Cathalina to express her appreciation of Betty’s refusal to criticise her, “but I shall ‘root’ for the seniors, for all that.”

“There they come!”

Sweeping around a little curve came the two canoes, the juniors a short distance in the lead. Their faces were sober and they paid no attention to the cheering crowd on the bank. With a spurt of speed, the senior crew overtook the juniors and passed them, but the juniors steadily regained the ground and crept up on the seniors, who were already doing their best. Nearer and nearer the goal they came, almost together. Juniors and seniors on the bank were almost holding their breath. Now the juniors were on a line with the seniors. Now they had passed them. Could the seniors regain the advantage?

“Oh, dear,” said Helen, “not much time now; hurry up, seniors! Just a little more speed, Pauline!”

The seniors redoubled their effort, but it was too late. The junior canoe shot past the goal more than its length ahead of the seniors. Such rejoicing of juniors followed! Cheering and clapping of feminine hands greeted the crew as it disembarked. Isabel was hugged, pounded and shaken till she cried for relief. “Why, girls didn’t you expect us to beat? I told you so!”

“We were afraid that it was just your optimism,” said one.

“It was just my determination! I was so scared at first for fear we would not that I resorted to suggestion for the crew and auto-suggestion for myself.”

“Gracious! Isabel is studying psychology this year, girls.”

“Oh, don’t think it was all psychology. Not a bit of it. We have practiced early and late. I’m sure I’ll be paddling is my sleep for a month.”

“Well, Isabel,” said Pauline, coming up and holding out her hand, “we’ll have to fold our tents like the Arabs and quietly steal away, won’t we?”

“Not a bit of it. Think of that party tonight! Say, Pauline, I owe you an apology for my ordering over the telephone in that way, but I was only trying to make myself believe that we would win. I can scarcely realize it yet, though we practiced day and night to do it against such foes.”

“That is very nice of you to say so, Isabel. We did our level best, and you earned your victory. Now, for the party! But we really ought to give it.”

“Not at all. The juniors entertain the seniors tonight. Senior yell, girls,—Seniors, rah! seniors, rah; Rah, rah! Seniors!”

The “Consolation Party” that night presented quite a different scene from the afternoon. The new summer gowns, in white or bright colors, were brought out from closets or wardrobes to grace their owners. One of the society halls was decked for the occasion with flowers and junior colors and the winning crew composed the reception committee. The refreshments were served from a pretty table at one end of the long room, and two junior girls pinned on the guests little canoes of folded crepe paper, prepared beforehand by the joint committee. They now bore the label “Junior,” added since the race.

“Do you mind much, Cathalina?” asked Isabel, in almost repentant tones.

“No, Isabel! To tell the truth,—but I must remember that I’m a senior. Only it seems nice for you to have put it through so wonderfully. The glory is all yours, so have no regrets.”