Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/218

"Georgie" "Get out, Georgie," said I, "and for heaven's sake let me do my work."

"Anyone would think you'd be glad to be cheered up, and have your mind taken away from your beastly old book," he said as he took himself off.

The next day but one, however, he came again, and this time wildly exultant.

"A determined strong-willed chap can do anything in the world if he makes up his mind and goes straight for what he wants."

"Very often," said I mildly. "What have you done?"

"What I meant to do," said Georgie. "Your discouragement was all I wanted to buck me up to the point. There's nothing like a little cold water to pull one together if one feels slack, and for the real genuine article straight from the crystal spring, I've only got to come to you. There's never any reflection for the want of it here."

"Did you throw a rope ladder up through the asylum window?" I asked 202