"I am afraid you will be disappointed, Leo," replied Maggie, with a sigh, as she thought what a sad thing it would be when the brilliant air-castle tumbled to the ground.
"Perhaps I shall; if I do, I can't help it. But if this fails, I have got another string to my bow."
"What's that?"
"I shall go into the boot-jack business next; and I hope to get up my machine for slicing potatoes, and such things, soon."
"O, dear, Leo! You are full of strange ideas. I only hope that some of them will work well," added Maggie.
"I'm going to be reasonable, sis. I'm not going to give up if a thing fails once, twice, or nineteen times. I'm going to keep pulling. I've got half a dozen things in my head; if five of them fail, I shall make a big thing out of the sixth."
"I hope you will; you are so patient and persevering that you ought to succeed in something."
"O, I shall; you may depend upon that! Make or break, I'm bound to succeed in something."
"What do you mean by 'make or break,' Leo? It sounds just as though you meant to make money if you sacrificed everything."
"I don't mean that."