The number of spectators was a wonder to all; where all the people came from was a mystery. The long piazza of the hotel, the wharf, even the roof of the boathouse swarmed with human beings. The shore on either side was lined with spectators for the distance of half a mile.
“Now, boys,” said the trapper, “ye must remember that a four-mile race is a good deal of a pull, and the goin’ off ain’t half so decidin’ as the comin’ in. I don’t conceit that we can afford to fool any time, for them perfessionals have come here to row, and they look to me as if they had a good deal of that sort of stuff in them; but it won’t do to get flustrated at the start, and if ye see fit to follow I’ll set ye a jegmatical sort of a stroke that will send us out to the buoys yonder without any rawness in the windpipe or kinks in the legs. But still if ye don’t think yer a-pullin’ fast enough take yer lick, fur in such a race as this is likely to be, a man should follow his own notions and act accordin’ to his gifts.”
“Do you think we will win, old trapper?” asked Fred. “I dunno, boy, I sartinly dunno, but I don’t like yer oars, especially that left one. There’s a kink in the shank of it that hadn’t orter be there.”
“Your oars are big enough to hold anyway and I hold you will win.”
“Thank ye, boys, thank ye; yis, I sartinly shall try, for it would be a mortal shame to have that prize to go out of the woods, an’ if nothin’ gives way I’ll give ’em a touch of the stuff that’s in me, the last mile, that’ll make ’em get down to work in earnest, but if anything happens I have great hopes of the Lad there, for his gifts are wonderful at the oars and—”
“Ready there,” came the clear voice of the starter; “ready there for the word.”
“Aye, aye, ready it is,” replied the trapper. “Now, Lad, if anything happens to me and you see I can’t win, John Norton will never forgive you if you don’t pull like a sinner runnin’ from jedgment.”
“Ready there, all of you; One, two, three, GO.”
The oars of the professionals dropped on the water as if their blades were controlled by one man, and their stroke was so tense and quick that the light boats fairly jumped ahead. The trapper and the Lad had been slower to get away and were a full length behind before they got fairly into motion. The Lad was the last to get started and so careless and ungainly was his appearance that the crowd, who cheered at the passage of the others, laughed and groaned at him. For forty rods the race continued without change in the relative position of the boats.