“Put your heart into it. Get interested. That’s the trick. Never do a thing with the simple desire to get it done quickly, but with the determination to get it done well.”
“That’s good advice, I reckon,” admitted Grafter; “but can you tell me how it is that you happen to be an all-round champion, yet able to defeat fellows who have made a special effort to excel in one particular line?”
“I have told you the whole secret. Other fellows may have been content to perfect themselves in one or two lines; I have tried to become perfect in many lines. Some things I like better than others. If I attempt a thing that I do not like very well, I work at it all the harder. If I find some other fellow who can do it better than I, then I set out to do it better than he can, and I never stop until I succeed. Even then, I generally find still another chap who is my superior and keep on trying to beat him.”
“But you were specially adapted to become a great athlete. You were athletic when a boy?”
“I made myself so. I was something of a weakling when born. My mother expected me to die. I remember hearing her say it was a shame I could not grow up to be strong and rugged. She even fancied I might have lung trouble.”
“It doesn’t seem possible!” cried Grafter, surveying Merry’s sturdy figure.
“When I became old enough to think, I resolved that I would be strong. I sought to learn how to make myself strong. I discovered the way. Do you know it is a fact that almost all great athletes and strong men have been weak children?”
“I did not know.”
“It’s true.”
“But it almost seems that you must hypnotize your opponents in matches. How is it that you defeat them time after time when they appear to have the advantage, the same as you did Manton to-day?”