Cinder Path Tales

166 CINDER-PATH TALES He is only the most pronounced case of a description I have met before and since. He hadability, but not the inclination nor the will. A temporary anger on that April morning had given him the necessary deter­ mination to force his muscles to their extreme exercise of power. His mother's note had furnished a motivewhich had brought him in a winner. Without incentives, his muscular powers were not exercised, and his perform­ ances wereordinary. Sometimes, as I sit by the fireside, smoking my pipe over old memories, Ithink ofDick, and wonderwhat he would have done had he Teddy Atherton's head on his shoulders, or his heart inside his ribs. Of all my athletic disappointments Dick furnished me with the most disheartening, and among all the surprises of fieldand track none has equalled the Virginia jumper.