"A success—if I can, sir."
"Well, the only way to success is, to succeed."
"I know as much as that myself, sir."
"Practise it then. You might as well try to take that hill at one jump, as think to be a success in January and June, and a failure all the rest of the time. Unless you're a fine mixture of laziness and mathematics. I am not myself."
"Very little mathematics about me," said Renwick; "and they speak as if that was everything here. So I don't see what I am to do."
"Do?" Magnus said. "Why, dig like a prairie dog! Things are not so deep down that they can't be routed out. And get all the help you can, and take all you can get."
"Do you mean 'ponies'?" said Renwick with a doubtful look.
"I do not mean 'ponies'!"
"But they say you are always so busy?"
"O yes, I'm busy enough; have to look out for my own scalp, you know. My advice is always at your service, but my time most generally not."