During these early years, with odds and ends of boards that they
collected, Grenfell and his brother built a boat to supply a better
means of stealing upon flocks of water birds. It was a curious
flat-bottomed affair with square ends and resembled a scow more than a
rowboat, but it served its purpose well enough, and was doubtless the
first craft which the young adventurer, later to become a master
mariner, ever commanded. Up and down the estuary, venturing even to
the sea, the two lads cruised in their clumsy craft, stopping over
night with the kind-hearted fishermen or "sleeping out" when they
found themselves too far from home. Many a fine time the ugly little
boat gave them until finally it capsized one day leaving them to swim
for it and reach the shore as best they could.

At the age of fourteen Grenfell was sent to Marlborough "College,"
where he had earned a scholarship. This was not a college as we speak
of a college in America, but a large university preparatory school.

In the beginning he had a fight with an "old boy," and being victor
firmly established his place among his fellow students. Whether at
Mostyn House, or later at Marlborough College, Grenfell learned early
to use the gloves. It was quite natural, devoted as he was to
athletics, that he should become a fine boxer. To this day he loves
the sport, and is always ready to put on the gloves for a bout, and it
is a mighty good man that can stand up before him. In most boys'
schools of that day, and doubtless at Marlborough College, boys
settled their differences with gloves, and in all probability Grenfell
had plenty of practice, for he was never a mollycoddle. He was perhaps
not always the winner, but he was always a true sportsman. There is a
vast difference between a "sportsman" and a "sport." Grenfell was a
sportsman, never a sport. His life in the open taught him to accept