Danny was flushed and perspiring from recent violent exertions on the bars. Some of the group about him were in training suits, and some were in street dress.
"Also a triumph for good old 'Umpty-eight," declared Ben Halliday, with satisfaction.
"How is that?" asked Bandy Robinson.
"Why," answered Halliday, "it was the freshman crew of 'Umpty-eight that, under Merriwell's instructions, adopted the Oxford oar and stroke and defeated 'Umpty-seven at Saltonstall. Do you see?"
"Vanity, vanity," quoth Dismal Jones, with the air of a Methodist preacher of old times. "They who ex
alt themselves in high places shall be cast down. Beware of false pride and the swelled head."
"Oh, you are always croaking!" exclaimed Lewis Little.
"I think it is a mistake to run off onto English methods," said Burn Putnam. "Harvard has done that, and they'll say we are following Harvard's example."
"What if they do say so?" yawned Bruce Browning, lazily. "What do we care, so long as we win the race at New London?"
"But we can't win this year," declared Walter Gordan, who had been swinging the clubs, and was flushed from the exertion. "It strikes me it is a crazy scheme to attempt to change the oars and the stroke at this late day. Harvard has been hammering away at her crew since last fall, and it will be in perfect trim when the New London race comes off, while Yale's crew will be all broken up if this change of methods occurs."