When I took him a walk of an afternoon I sometimes put in my pocket a couple of cakes, of a kind he was very fond of; we each ate one while we were out, and we came back well pleased with our outing.  One day he noticed I had three cakes; he could have easily eaten six, so he ate his cake quickly and asked for the other.  “No,” said I, “I could eat it myself, or we might divide it, but I would rather see those two little boys run a race for it.”  I called them to us, showed them the cake, and suggested that they should race for it.  They were delighted.  The cake was placed on a large stone which was to be the goal; the course was marked out, we sat down, and at a given signal off flew the children!  The victor seized the cake and ate it without pity in the sight of the spectators and of his defeated rival.

The sport was better than the cake; but the lesson did not take effect all at once, and produced no result.  I was not discouraged, nor did I hurry; teaching is a trade at which one must be able to lose time and save it.  Our walks were continued, sometimes we took three cakes, sometimes four, and from time to time there were one or two cakes for the racers.  If the prize was not great, neither was the ambition of the competitors.  The winner was praised and petted, and everything was done with much ceremony.  To give room to run and to add interest to the race I marked out a longer course and admitted several fresh competitors.  Scarcely had they entered the lists than all the passers-by stopped to watch.  They were encouraged by shouting, cheering, and clapping.  I sometimes saw my little man trembling with excitement, jumping up and shouting when one was about to reach or overtake another—­to him these were the Olympian games.

However, the competitors did not always play fair, they got in each other’s way, or knocked one another down, or put stones on the track.  That led us to separate them and make them start from different places at equal distances from the goal.  You will soon see the reason for this, for I must describe this important affair at length.

Tired of seeing his favourite cakes devoured before his eyes, the young lord began to suspect that there was some use in being a quick runner, and seeing that he had two legs of his own, he began to practise running on the quiet.  I took care to see nothing, but I knew my stratagem had taken effect.  When he thought he was good enough (and I thought so too), he pretended to tease me to give him the other cake.  I refused; he persisted, and at last he said angrily, “Well, put it on the stone and mark out the course, and we shall see.”  “Very good,” said I, laughing, “You will get a good appetite, but you will not get the cake.”  Stung by my mockery, he took heart, won the prize, all the more easily because I had marked out a very short course and taken care that the best runner was out of the way.  It will be evident that, after the first step, I had no difficulty in keeping him in training.  Soon he took such a fancy for this form of exercise that without any favour he was almost certain to beat the little peasant boys at running, however long the course.