This girl of eighteen was more famous than she cared to be for her performances in the gymnasium.  She commonly contented herself with the same exercises that her companions were accustomed to.  Only her dumb-bells, with which she exercised easily and gracefully, were too heavy for most of the girls to do more with than lift them from the floor.  She was fond of daring feats on the trapeze, and had to be checked in her indulgence in them.  The Professor of gymnastics at the University came over to the Institute now and then, and it was a source of great excitement to watch some of the athletic exercises in which the young lady showed her remarkable muscular strength and skill in managing herself in the accomplishment of feats which looked impossible at first sight.  How often The Terror had thought to herself that she would gladly give up all her knowledge of Greek and the differential and integral calculus if she could only perform the least of those feats which were mere play to The Wonder!  Miss Euthymia was not behind the rest in her attainments in classical or mathematical knowledge, and she was one of the very best students in the out-door branches,—­botany, mineralogy, sketching from nature,—­to be found among the scholars of the Institute.

There was an eight-oared boat rowed by a crew of the young ladies, of which Miss Euthymia was the captain and pulled the bow oar.  Poor little Lurida could not pull an oar, but on great occasions, when there were many boats out, she was wanted as coxswain, being a mere feather-weight, and quick-witted enough to serve well in the important office where brains are more needed than muscle.

There was also an eight-oared boat belonging to the University, and rowed by a picked crew of stalwart young fellows.  The bow oar and captain of the University crew was a powerful young man, who, like the captain of the girls’ boat, was a noted gymnast.  He had had one or two quiet trials with Miss Euthymia, in which, according to the ultras of the woman’s rights party, he had not vindicated the superiority of his sex in the way which might have been expected.  Indeed, it was claimed that he let a cannon-ball drop when he ought to have caught it, and it was not disputed that he had been ingloriously knocked over by a sand-bag projected by the strong arms of the young maiden.  This was of course a story that was widely told and laughingly listened to, and the captain of the University crew had become a little sensitive on the subject.  When there was a talk, therefore, about a race between the champion boats of the two institutions there was immense excitement in both of them, as well as among the members of the Pansophian Society and all the good people of the village.