"Ringing bells?" he repeated. "No; dumb-bells—exercises, you know! Come on, I will show you."
"I never saw bells like those," was Ralph's comment, when a pair was produced. "How do you use them?"
Warren went through a set of exercises, and then handed them to Ralph, who laughed, and said—
"Why, they don't weigh anything! I don't see much exercise in this!"
"They are six-pounders," was the answer; "quite as heavy as you will want. Now try this exercise—do it a dozen times."
Warren showed Ralph the right way, and off he went; Charlton, who had also got a pair of bells, doing the same. And, to Ralph Rexworth's surprise, he found that those weights at which he had laughed soon made him feel tired, and that Charlton could keep on longer than he could. He could not understand that.
"I don't see why it should be," he said.
And a voice replied—
"Because you are exercising muscles which you have not tried much before, my lad." And he turned, to see Mr. Delermain watching him.
"Try again," said the master. "Only once; this sort of thing must be done gradually. Go slow, and take time."