"We tried hard enough," sighed Pudge.
"Can't blame you, Horrors," Kirby declared.
"I dunno as I want to learn to row," Cloudman remarked.
"If we'd had any sort of training!" Midkiff gloomily grumbled.
"Cheer up, fellows," was Kingdon's laughing adjurement. "The worst is yet to come."
"No it isn't!" exclaimed Horace Pence with angry decision.
"Yes it is," insisted Rex quietly. "We've agreed to enter those races three weeks from to-day. We'll have to meet the Blackport, North Pemberly and Howelson crews. We've agreed to. Don't want 'em to call us quitters, do we?"
"Of course we'll race," said Phillips, his jaw set doggedly.
"It isn't that at all," Pence went on, his black eyes flashing and his dark cheeks flushed. "It isn't that. We'll race, but we're going to do better than we did to-day!"
"I sure do like the sound of your talk just about now," Cloudman drawled. "Seems like you meant it. I'm with you."