Mrs. Armstrong noted the look of health on her boy's face, and was glad. She felt that he had already gained something physically, for even in the short time he had been at the school he seemed to have increased in stature. She told Frank that he was growing like a weed.
"You think I'm growing. Just cast your eye on Jimmy," said Frank. "Jimmy grew bigger every day of football and he is as hard as a stone wall. Feel his muscles. Come on, Jimmy, show the lady." And Jimmy obligingly flexed his biceps and offered the bunched-up knot of muscles as a proof of his growing power.
"And look at David there. He's going to be the champion strong man of Queen's, if he doesn't look out. He spends all his spare time down at the gym. You should see him dipping on the parallel bars and doing stunts on the flying rings. Patsy has to actually drive him out of the place," which was a fact. "David has made up his mind to be a 'champeen.'"
"I can't do anything else, Mrs. Armstrong," said David. "And I've got so much to learn that I have to keep at it."
David had set his heart on winning a place on the gymnasium team, and to do this he had taken up the work he was best fitted for. Owing to his light body and a natural strength in his arms, he was already able to do things in raising himself with his arms, which a boy fully developed, of greater general strength, might have accomplished only with the greatest difficulty.
David's strength of arm was in evidence one day at the gymnasium when the four friends, David, Frank, Jimmy and Lewis, were on the floor. A certain amount of physical work in the gym was called for by the school requirements, or, at least, a certain time had to be spent in some kind of exercise. Boys who took part in any of the outdoor sports were not called upon to do work on the floor during the period of practice of the teams they represented. To Lewis, who was indolent of body, the hour in the gym was the hardest of the day, but he made his task as light as it could be. His way of exercise was to stroll over to a chest-weight and give it two or three pulls with the lightest loads he could find for it, and then walk to the other end of the gym for two or three pulls at some other piece of apparatus. Patsy kept after him, but athletic work for Lewis was like pulling teeth.
On the day in question, the four boys had just about finished their work and stopped by the end of the parallel bars.
"How many times can you dip?" said Jimmy. Dipping, as of course every one knows, consists in raising oneself up and down from a bent position of the arms to a straight position, the weight of the body being carried entirely on the arms during the raise and drop.
"I don't know," said Frank, "never tried."
"Go on and show your speed," said Jimmy, "it will be good practice for your pitching arm. All good pitchers have lots of muscle, you know."