I say their leisure moments; for the affairs of the club were not permitted to interfere with any of the usual duties of the members.  At home and at school, it was required that everything should be done well and done properly.  As may be supposed, this was not an easy matter for boys whose heads were full of boats and boating; and about once a week the coxswains found it advisable to read a lecture on the necessity of banishing play during work hours.  “Whatsoever thy hands find to do, do it with all thy might,” was a text so often repeated that it had virtually become one of the articles of the constitution.

The boys felt the necessity of following this precept.  They realized enough of the law of cause and effect to be aware that, if their home and school duties were neglected, or slovenly done, boating would soon obtain a bad reputation; so both parents and teacher found that the clubs were a great help rather than a hindrance in the performance of their several functions.

So strongly were the Zephyrs impressed with the necessity of not permitting the club to interfere with home and school duties, that, at the latter part of their first season, they had established a rule by which any member who wilfully neglected his duties should be, for a certain time, excluded from the club.  And this rule was not a dead letter.  One Wednesday forenoon Charles Hardy had wasted his time in school, and failed in his lessons.  On his slate was found a drawing of a club boat, manned by certain ill-looking caricatures, which explained the cause of the defection.  An excursion had been planned for that afternoon, and when Charles presented himself at the boat-house, he was politely informed that he could not go.  In vain he pleaded; Fred Harper, who was coxswain at the time, was very civil and very gentle, but he was inflexible.  And the culprit had the satisfaction of sitting upon a rock on shore, and seeing what a fine time the fellows were having.

The effect was decidedly salutary, and another case of such discipline did not again occur.  The boys, zealous to keep their favorite sport in good repute, adopted the regulation for the present year, in both clubs.  Without such precautions as these it was plain that boating would soon become a nuisance, which neither parents nor teachers would tolerate.  Therefore the members of the clubs made it a point to keep their “voyages,” their plans and schemes, out of their minds at times when their heads should be filled with, other matters.  It was astonishing to what an extent they succeeded; and boys would often be surprised to see how well they can do, if they would only set about it earnestly and with a determination to succeed.

The notable scheme which just now engrossed the attention of the Butterflies was no less than the establishment of a “fleet of boats” upon the lake.  The dream of half a dozen boats, under command of Commodore Frank Sedley, maneuvering on the water, performing beautiful evolutions, and doing a hundred things which they could not then define, was so pleasant, so fascinating, that they could not easily give it up.