On the following night, when he
had recovered a little, he began reproaching the man in the moon.
"'I called for you,' he said, 'to come and help me against my enemies, and
now you have come and thrashed me.'
"But these words, instead of softening the man in the moon, caused him to
come down again and give the poor boy a far worse thrashing than before,
but for every blow he made the boy return one as good as he had received.
"Now for the first time the boy began to notice that the more he was beaten
the stronger he grew. Still he could not understand what the man in the
moon meant. So he came again, and they had another regular set-to, and the
boy had another good sound thrashing. He asked him what was the meaning of
his beating him thus. The man in the moon now spoke to him, but his words
were so much like a puzzle that at first the boy did not understand them.
This is what the man in the moon said:
"'Would you triumph o'er the strong?
Be strong.
Would you let them no more conquer?
Conquer.'
"For a time the boy repeated them over and over. He used to say that as the
result of these meetings with the man in the moon he had grown so strong
that he was nearly able to hold his own against his antagonist. Then one
day, when the man in the moon was puffing from the encounter, the latter
said:
"'Now by hard knocks and exercise I have put you on the way of ending your
troubles.
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