The uncle stopped， looked at her for a minute， thenslowly laid the barrel stave on the floor， put his handin his pocket， took out half a dollar， and gave it to her.
The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door， never taking her eyes off the manwhom she had just conquered. After she had gone，the uncle sat down on a box and looked out thewindow into space for more than ten minutes. Hewas pondering， with awe， over the whipping he hadjust taken.
Mr. Darby， too， was doing some thinking. Thatwas the first time in all his experience that he hadseen a colored child deliberately master an adultwhite person. How did she do it？ What happened tohis uncle that caused him to lose his fierceness andbecome as docile as a lamb？ What strange powerdid this child use that made her master over hersuperior？ These and other similar questions flashedinto Darby’s mind， but he did not find the answeruntil years later， when he told me the story.
Strangely， the story of this unusual experiencewas told to the author in the old mill， on the veryspot where the uncle took his whipping. Strangely，too， I had devoted nearly a quarter of a century tothe study of the power which enabled an ignorant，illiterate colored child to conquer an intelligent man.
As we stood there in that musty old mill， Mr. Darby repeated the story of the unusual conquest，and finished by asking， “What can you make ofit？ What strange power did that child use， that socompletely whipped my uncle？”
The answer to his question will be found in theprinciples described in this book. The answer is fulland complete. It contains details and instructionssufficient to enable anyone to understand， and applythe same force which the little child accidentallystumbled upon.
Keep your mind alert， and you will observe exactly what strange power came to the rescue of thechild， you will catch a glimpse of this power in thenext chapter. Somewhere in the book you will findan idea that will quicken your receptive powers， andplace at your command， for your own benefit， thissame irresistible power. The awareness of this powermay come to you in the first chapter， or it may flashinto your mind in some subsequent chapter. It maycome in the form of a single idea. Or， it may comein the nature of a plan， or a purpose. Again， it maycause you to go back into your past experiencesof failure or defeat， and bring to the surface somelesson by which you can regain all that you lostthrough defeat.
After I had described to Mr. Darby the power unwittingly used by the little colored child， hequickly retraced his thirty years of experience as alife insurance salesman， and frankly acknowledgedthat his success in that field was due， in no smalldegree， to the lesson he had learned from the child.
Mr. Darby pointed out： “every time a prospecttried to bow me out， without buying， I saw that childstanding there in the old mill， her big eyes glaringin defiance， and I said to myself， ‘I’ve gotta makethis sale.’ The better portion of all sales I have made，were made after people had said ‘NO’.”
He recalled， too， his mistake in having stoppedonly three feet from gold， “but，” he said， “thatexperience was a blessing in disguise. It taught meto keep on keeping on， no matter how hard the goingmay be， a lesson I needed to learn before I couldsucceed in anything.”
This story of Mr. Darby and his uncle， the coloredchild and the gold mine， doubtless will be read byhundreds of men who make their living by sellinglife insurance， and to all of these， the author wishesto offer the suggestion that Darby owes to these twoexperiences his ability to sell more than a milliondollars of life insurance every year.
Life is strange， and often imponderable！ Boththe successes and the failures have their roots insimple experiences. Mr. Darby’s experiences werecommonplace and simple enough， yet they held theanswer to his destiny in life， therefore they were asimportant （to him） as life itself. He profited by thesetwo dramatic experiences， because he analyzedthem， and found the lesson they taught. But what ofthe man who has neither the time， nor the inclinationto study failure in search of knowledge that may leadto success？ Where， and how is he to learn the art ofconverting defeat into stepping stones to opportunity？
In answer to these questions， this book was written.
The answer called for a deion of thirteenprinciples， but remember， as you read， the answeryou may be seeking， to the questions which havecaused you to ponder over the strangeness of life，may be found in your own mind， through some idea，plan， or purpose which may spring into your mind asyou read.
One sound idea is all that one needs to achievesuccess. The principles described in this book，contain the best， and the most practical of all thatis known， concerning ways and means of creatinguseful ideas.
Before we go any further in our approach to thedeion of these principles， we believe you areentitled to receive this important suggestion….
WHEN RICHES BEGIN TO COME THEY COME SO
QUICKLY， IN SUCH GREAT ABUNDANCE， THAT
ONE WONDERS WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN HIDING
DURING ALL THOSE LEAN YEARS. This is an
astounding statement， and all the more so， when wetake into consideration the popular belief， that richescome only to those who work hard and long.
When you begin to THINK AND GROW RICH，
you will observe that riches begin with a state ofmind， with definiteness of purpose， with little or nohard work. You， and every other person， ought tobe interested in knowing how to acquire that stateof mind which will attract riches. I spent twentyfiveyears in research， analyzing more than 25，000people， because I， too， wanted to know “howwealthy men become that way.