"
He turned his bright face to his father. "Any little plugging
I've done seems like thirty cents compared to that. You're all
peaches to take such an interest, and I thank you a lot. Me,
the superintendent of the Oriel mine! Holy mackerel!" gasped
Johnny, and sat down.
The proportion of fighting in the battle of life outweighs the
"beer and skittles"; as does the interest. Johnny McLean found
interest in masses, in the drab-and-dun village on the prairie.
He found pleasure, too, and as far as he could reach he tried to
share it; buoyancy and generosity were born in him; strenuousness
he had painfully acquired, and like most converts was a fanatic
about it. He was splendidly fit; he was the best and last output
of the best institution in the country; he went at his work
like a joyful locomotive. Yet more goes to explain what he was
and what he did. He developed a faculty for leading men. The
cold bath of failure, the fire of success had tempered the young
steel of him to an excellent quality; bright and sharp, it cut
cobwebs in the Oriel mine where cobwebs had been thickening for
months. The boy, normal enough, quite unphenomenal, was growing
strong by virtue of his one strong quality: he did what he
resolved to do.
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