You must try yourselves out fairly and squarely.

Our purpose is to find out which is the better oarsman, and also which rows with the more finish.

Take your seats in your craft." Dave and Dan seated themselves, with all possible gravity, in their respective wash basins.
"Up oars!" commanded Mr.Trotter.
As neither plebe knew just what was meant by this command they had to be shown how to sit holding their "oars" straight up in the air.
"Let fall!" This time the two new men guessed fairly well.

They went through the motions of allowing their toothpick oars to fall into row-locks.
"Now, at the outset, take your strokes from my count," directed Mr.Trotter.

"One, two three, four, five, six, seven--" And so on.