tander to another,
as Nat added one after another to the tallies.

"Yes; no one can excel him; he never plays second fiddle to anybody. He
will run faster, catch better, and hit the ball more times in ten, than
any other boy. I saw him jump the other day, and he surpassed any thing
I have seen of his age."

"If that is not all he is good for, it is well enough," replied the
other.

"He is just as good at studying or working, as he is at playing ball;
it seems to be a principle with him _to be the best_ in whatever he
undertakes. I was amused at his reply to one of the neighbors, who asked
him how he managed to swim better than any one else. 'It is just as easy
to swim well as poorly,' said he, and there is a good deal of truth in
the remark. At another time he said, 'one might as well run fast as
slow.'"

"Does he appear to glory in his feats?"

"Not at all. He does not seem to think there is much credit in being the
best at these games. One of the boys said to him one day, 'Nat, you
always get all the glory in our games.' He replied, 'I don't think there
is much glory in playing ball well. If that is all a person is good for,
he is not good for much.' He has very good ideas about such things."

This was really a correct view of Nat's case. He enjoyed athletic sports
as much as any of the boys, and yet he actually felt that it was no
particular credit to him to be a good swimmer, jumper, runner, or
ball-player. He did not study to excel therein because he thought it was
honorable to beat every other boy in these things. But what he did, he
did with all his soul, and this is necessary to success. He had
confidence in his ability to succeed in what he undertook. When he first
went into the water, he knew he could learn to swim. When he took his
stand to catch the ball, he knew he could catch it. Others did these
things, and he could see no reason why he could not. He seemed to feel
as one of the Rothschilds did, who said, "I can do what another man
can." The same elements of character caused him to excel on the
play-ground, that enabled him to bear off the palm in the school-room.

It is generally the case that a boy who does one thing well will do
another well also. Employers understand this, and choose those lads who
exhibit a disposition to be thorough. Said Samuel Budgett, "In whatever
calling a man is found, he ought to be the best in his calling; if only
a shoe-black, he ought to be the best shoe-black in th