Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-06-09
"A + air Exchange
[Original.1


simple matter to him that he couldn't
understand why all students couldn't
do the same. What Mr.. Parks coveted
was success in athletics and he espe-
clally desired to be prominent as q
Doallng man. He had not the physique
TO gam MIN an entrance into the uni
verslty crew, but felt it possible for
him to stand well as an unprofessional
Oarsman.
PARKS spent his vacation before en-
terlng upon his senior year at Lake M.
and sent his own boat, needle shaped
atra1r with wide outriggers on either
side, up by rail. At the hotel where
ne stopped were q couple Of college
girls, one or whom had no end of con-
0ltlons consequent upon her last exami-
nations to make up and should have
been studying rather than summerinR
Inc other, Josephine Banning, was
rich, and 1t made little difference prac-
tlcally whether she got diploma or
not, but Aida Lane was poor and
doomed to the drudgery of a school
room and her degree was Of the great
est importance to her. Since the need
ful Is seldom bestowed In the right
place, Miss Banning was a good
scholar, while Miss Lane dragged
along at the foot Of her class. How
ever, the latter was pretty and there
was nope for her in another direction.
Parks met the two girls and devoted
himself to Miss Banning. This again
was all wrong, for Miss Banning
didn't need husband and Miss Lane
needed one very much.
One morning Parks was pulling
ieisurely on the sunlit bosom of the
lake in his skeleton boat, when, hear
ing the sounds of oars ahead, he turned
and saw Aida Lane in a light lap
streak she had hired at the landing.
Not averse to company, Parks gave a
few strokes with his long sweeps with
a view to taking position beside her,
then turned his head to speak To
his surprise, her boat was not on his
quarter, but about as far ahead as
he had first seen it. He gave a dozen
more strokes, and turned again to look.
He had not gained half q length. Then
he began to exert himself, but when
Wilbur Parks exerted himself he was
sure to do poorly. He put his oars in
too deep and took them out with a
jerk. Miss Lane stopped rowing and
let him come alongside.
You don't feather right she said.
Parks, red as a lobster, looked at her
with an expression denoting that he
did not care to be taught rowing by a
girl,
Your strokes are too fast for such
long sweeps" she went on. you're
giving as many to the minute as 1 with
these paddles'
Parks didn't deign to reply.
"Oh, said the girl, pulling on, q beg
your pardon. | didn't intend''-
Either she didn't finish the sentence
or Parks didn't hear the end. At any
rate, though he worked hard, she
pulled from him as a duck would
swim from a chicken, the "clunk'' of
her oars growing fainter in the dis
lance.
The young mans emotions were like
the rumbling of volcanic forces. What
were all the scholarly prizes he had
taken against this ignominious defeat
by girl? Had she beaten him intel
lectually he would not have much
minded it, but for man to be worsted
in the matter of a mans natural en-
dowment-strength-b a girl, whose
principal weapon should be weakness.
was humiliating indeed. He hated
Miss Lane, and when man begins to
take enough interest in a woman to
hate her he is in dangerous condi-
ton. He knew he had been rude to
her and should have apologized. He
compromised when they met in the
evening by thanking her in a formal
way for his lessons in rowing.
The matter might have stood at rest
here had not sudden shower come UP
when the guests were having a lawn
party at some distance from the hotel
Parks was walking briskly for cover
when Miss Lane ran by him. Instinc-
lively he began to race her, but when
he reached the piazza she was sitting
in hammock tanning herself.
After this there was more bad blood
between Mr.. Parks and Miss Lane, and
they barely spoke to each other.
One morning Miss Lane went to the
landing for a row. There was not a
boat to be had, and she was about to
retrace her steps when, looking out on
the lake, she was just in time to see a
collision between a punt and Wilbur
Parks shell. Both oarSmen were spill
ed in the water, the punter swimming
for shore, Parks clinging to one Of the
| boats.
Had the girl let him alone he would
have been picked up presently and no
damage done, but she saw her advan-
tage and grasped it. Taking off only
her shoes, she plunged In and swan
| for him. Parks saw her coming and,
preferring death to being saved by her,
left his boat and tried to swim for the
landing. When they met he was ex-
| hausted. The girl managed to get his