" The confusion subsided and they heard these words:
"--sometimes impossible to get Mr. Edison's attention for weeks at a
time. He has his meals brought in and sleeps in the laboratory--when he
sleeps at all--and so intense is his interest in his work that it is
useless to attempt to disturb him even for what seems to me to be
business of the highest importance.
"But he has permitted me to express his deep and sincere interest in all
you young people, and I am adding, on my own responsibility, three
expressions of his which now seem to have maximum force because he has
used them:
"'Never mind the milk that's spilt.'
"Genius is one per cent. _in_spiration, and ninety-nine per cent.
_per_spiration.'
"'Don't watch--don't clock the watch--oh!--_don't_ watch the CLOCK!--'
Why, Mr. Edison, I thought you--I have just been explaining why you
couldn't come--and now (with a laugh) here you are!
"There was a hearty chuckle and another voice said:
"I know it's mean to make you a victim of misplaced confidence, but it
came across me like a flash that I couldn't do a better thing for the
Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts and all the 'good scouts,' old and young,
than to broadcast a good word for my friend Marconi. So I have run up
here to speak to the Radio Boys after all. I know it's a shame, but--"
"Nothing of the sort, Mr. Edison,--not on your life!" (It is the more
familiar voice of Mr.
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