Of course now and then I saw the right numbers; and it deepened the conviction that if I cultivated the gift I'd be able to be right nearly every time.

When I went to a horse-race I used to fasten my mind on the signal, and tried to see beforehand the number of the winner.

Again sometimes I was very right indeed, and that deepened my confidence in myself.

I was always at it.
I'd try and guess--try and see--the number of the hymn which was on the paper in the vicar's hand before he gave it out, and I would bet with myself on it.

I would bet with myself or with anybody available on any conceivable thing--the minutes late a train would be; the pints of milk a cow would give; the people who would be at a hunt breakfast; the babies that would be christened on a Sunday; the number of eyes in a peck of raw potatoes.