I don't expect for a moment it will be wanted; but if it is, Gilks will be under the painful necessity of catching a crab!" "I don't mind how you do it as long as there's no mistake about it," said Silk.

With which ungenerous admission Gilks produced a couple of cigar-ends from his pocket, and these two nice boys proceeded to spend a dissipated evening.
The reader will have guessed from what has already been said that the coming boat-race was every day becoming a more and more exciting topic in Willoughby.

Under any circumstances the race was, along with the May sports and the cricket-match against Rockshire, one of the events of the year.

But this year, ever since it had come somehow to be mixed up with the squabble about the captaincy, and the jealousy between Parrett's and the schoolhouse, it had become more important than ever.
Old Wyndham had, of course, left the schoolhouse boat at the head of the river, but there was scarcely a boy (even in the schoolhouse itself) who seriously expected it would remain there over the coming regatta.
The Parrett's fellows were already crowing in anticipation, and the victory of Bloomfield's boat was only waited for as a final ground for resisting the authority of any captain but their own.

Their boat was certainly one of the best which the school had turned out, and compared with their competitors' it seemed as if nothing short of a miracle could prevent its triumph.
But the schoolhouse fellows, little as they expected to win, were meaning to make a hot fight of it.