Page:Stanwood Pier--Crashaw brothers.djvu/106

88 coaching them on the rowing-machines, and afterwards taking them for a mile trot down  the road. It was quite like being captain, and though Edward felt as he led his meagre band  that perhaps not one of them would ever make  the crew, he enjoyed being given a position of  such responsibility.

As for Sheldon, with all his attractive qualities, he had not much feeling of responsibility. He was a most easy-going, mentally indolent boy, who was nominally a Sixth Former but  who was really repeating about half his studies  with the Fifth; he had been elected captain  of the Pythian crew and also of the School  crew by virtue of being the best oar in St. Timothy’s and not because he had ever demonstrated any notable capacity for leadership.

Of the four members of the crew of the year before who had returned to the School,  Cochrane and Quimby were Fifth Formers  and would naturally have been passed over  in the election of a captain; but Edward could not help thinking it strange that Sheldon had been preferred to Durant, who