The breeze dropped again to short puffs.  ’Possum rose to her feet suddenly, holding the umbrella high over her tall head, at a cunning angle; and suddenly her boat shot forward.  She was level with Flossie before the latter’s boat began to move, then she drew ahead slowly, and inch by inch they crept on, while the howls from the shore grew more and more frantic.  Miss Parker tried every trick of umbrella generalship that she knew, but she could not quite make up the distance.  ’Possum’s boat touched the line half a length ahead.