The spectators still lingered; and as the boats neared the land, they were greeted with repeated cheers.

Then, side by side, they pulled slowly along the shore, within a few rods of the lake's bank, till they reach the Butterflies' house, where they all landed.
And thus ended the famous boat race, over which the boys had been thinking by day and dreaming by night for several weeks.

The occasion had passed; and if it was productive of any evil effects in the minds of those who engaged in it, they were more than balanced by the excellent discipline it afforded.

They had learned to look without envy upon those whom superior skill or good fortune had favored, and to feel kindly towards those over whom they had won a victory.

It was a lesson which they would all need in the great world, where many a race is run, and where the conqueror is not always gentle towards the conquered--where defeat generates ill-will, envy, and hatred.
"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another," said Jesus--not only love one another when the sky is clear, and the waters are smooth, but when the clouds threaten, and the stormy sea lashes with its fury; not only when the arm of friendship and kindness holds us up, but when all hearts seem cold, when all hands are closed, and all faces frown upon us.