[Parkhurst Boys by Talbot Baines Reed]@TWC D-Link bookParkhurst Boys CHAPTER THREE 1/15
CHAPTER THREE. THE PARKHURST BOAT-RACE. "Adams is wanted down at the boat-house!" Such was the sound which greeted my ears one Saturday afternoon as I lolled about in the playground at Parkhurst, doing nothing.
I jumped up as if I had been shot, and asked the small boy who brought the message who wanted me. "Blades does; you've got to cox the boat this afternoon instead of Wilson.
Look sharp!" he said, "as they're waiting to start." Off I went, without another word, filled with mingled feelings of wonder, pride, and trepidation.
I knew Wilson, the former coxswain of the school boat, had been taken ill and left Parkhurst, but this was the first I had ever heard of my being selected to take his place.
True, I had steered the boat occasionally when no one else could be got, and on such occasions had managed to keep a moderately good course up the Two Mile Reach, but I had never dreamed of such a pitch of good fortune as being called to occupy that seat as a fixture. But now it wanted only a week of the great race with the Old Boys, and here was I summoned to take charge of the rudder at the eleventh hour, which of course meant I would have to steer the boat on the occasion of the race! No wonder, then, I was half daft with excitement as I hurried down to the boathouse in obedience to the summons of Blades, the stroke of the Parkhurst Four. I should explain that at Parkhurst we were peculiarly favoured in the matter of boating.
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