Law of Success (21st Century Edition)

SELF-CONFIDENCE 205

which to spin a yam that would entertain while conveying the points they were

trying to make. However, the America in which most of us live today is not nearly

as bucolic as the one in which Hill grew up. There's a lot less catching of frogs in

the creek or watching of grouse in the fields, and kids think chickens come as a

half-dozen thighs or breasts shrink-wrapped in a package from the supermarket.

For that reason, as this edition was being prepared, there was considerable

discussion among the editors about the inclusion of Hill's animal analogies. It was

concluded that the points made are as valid today as they were when Hill wrote

them, and though they might be considered quaint by the modem reader, the sto-

ries themselves provide interesting insights into the life and times of Napoleon Hill.

Shortly after I began, some thirty-odd years ago, to examine the
major sources from which we gather the knowledge that makes us what
we are, I discovered the nest of a ruffed grouse. The nest was so located
that the mother bird could be seen from a considerable distance when
she was on the nest. With the aid of a pair of field glasses, I watched
the bird closely until the young birds were hatched. It happened that
my regular daily observation was made but a few hours after the young
birds came out of the shell. Desiring to know what would happen,
I approached the nest. The mother bird remained nearby until I was
within ten or twelve feet of her, then she disarranged her feathers,
stretched one wing over her leg, and went hobbling away, making a pre-
tense of being crippled. Being somewhat familiar with the tricks of
mother birds, I did not follow but instead went to the nest to take a look
at the little ones. Without the slightest signs of fear they turned their eyes
toward me, moving their heads first one way and then another. I reached
down and picked one of them up. With no signs of fear it stood in the
palm of my hand. I laid the bird back in the nest and went away to a safe
distance to give the mother bird a chance to return.
The wait was short. Very soon she began cautiously to edge her
way back toward the nest until she was within a few feet of it, when she
spread her wings and ran as fast as she could, uttering, meanwhile, a