way to handle the disk."

"It would not have been the first time I had thrown one," cried the boy.
"See, what I can do!" With these words he stooped and raised one of the
flat stones, which lay piled up to secure the pathway; extending his arm
with all his strength, he flung the granite disk over the precipice away
into the abyss.

"There, you see," cried Paulus, who had watched the throw carefully and
not without some anxious excitement. "However strong your arm may be,
any novice could throw farther than you if only he knew the art of
holding the discus. It is not so--not so; it must cut through the air
like a knife with its sharp edge. Look how you hold your hand, you throw
like a woman! The wrist straight, and now your left foot behind, and
your knee bent! see, how clumsy you are! Here, give me the stone. You
take the discus so, then you bend your body, and press down your knees
like the arc of a bow, so that every sinew in your body helps to speed
the shot when you let go. Aye--that is better, but it is not quite right
yet. First heave the discus with your arm stretched out, then fix your
eye on the mark; now swing it out high behind you--stop! once more! your
arm must be more strongly strained before you throw. That might pass,
but you ought to be able to hit the palm-tree yonder. Give me your
discus, and that stone. There; the unequal corners hinder its flight--
now pay attention!" Paulus spoke with growing eagerness, and now he
grasped the flat stone, as he might have done many years since when no
youth in Alexandria had been his match in throwing the discus.

He bent his knees, stretched out his body, gave play to his wrist,
extended his arm to the utmost and hurled the stone into space, while the
clenched toes of his right foot deeply dinted the soil.