My only interest lay now in seeing him scratch and bump and pinch himself.

I revived his drooping spirits with a glass of beer and some judicious praise.

I said: "Watching you do this is of real use to me.

It is not only your skill and dexterity that fascinates me, it is your cheery confidence in yourself, your inexplicable hopefulness, that does me good." Thus encouraged, he set to work to refix the gear-case.

He stood the bicycle against the house, and worked from the off side.