human
We have to handle him very careful, said his father,
gpt
He prodded my hand into his back and sides.
human
Not big muscles, mind, but lots of small ones. Say, it's a fine thing to have your body trained. I don't believe there's a healthier-- Hey, there! Keep those legs together. Easy now. Good boy!
gpt
He'll make a gymnast, said Potter,
human
How do you mean, getting the time perfect?
gpt
Why, in trapeze work everything depends on judging time. Just now when you were hanging from the cradle you couldn't see much, could you? Well, we can't, either. We have to know when to do things by feeling the time they take. Say it's a long double swing, where the men cross and change bars. Each man grabs or lets go at the second or part of a second when the watch inside him says it's time to grab or let go. That's the only watch he has, and it's the only one he needs.
human
And he dives by the sense of time?
gpt
That's right.
human
And does triple somersaults by the sense of time?
gpt
Certainly he does. He can't see. What could _you_ see, falling and whirling? A gymnast has no different eyes from any other man. He's got to _feel_ how long he must keep on turning. And it's good-by gymnast if his feeling is a quarter of a second out of the way.
human
Do you mean that literally?