Our Children. 63 



her hands have become hard with work that theirs might be kept 

 soft and white for the piano, and that she has denied herself books 

 and leisure that they might have both. There are such, and there 

 are others too noble for such base ingratitude, who feel a keen, 

 though secret sense of loss as they kiss the dear withered cheek 

 and think how much more of a woman mother might have been 

 had she not been so self-sacrificing. If these words I am saying 

 will only make you think of this now. and if the thought shall 

 make you in any way more careful and considerate and affection- 

 ate now, to mother, whom I'm sure you love very much, I shall be 

 glad indeed that I have said them, and sometime you will be glad 

 too. 



When your school days are over, and you leave the loved ones 

 at home to find a " situation," you are quite sure, Young- America 

 like, that in ten years you will be worth as much as your father 

 at forty. Hope is a " merry dancing boy and the ideal pictures he 

 paints are very fascinating." Could you realize at the outset that 

 situations are hunting for men and boys far more keenly and far 

 more constantly than they for situations, your ardor would be 

 sDmewhat dampened. " Why so," you ask, "I can work as well 

 as anyone." Let me see, I'll ask a few questions: "Are you hon- 

 est?" ''Indeed I am." " Are you sure you can withstand temp- 

 tation? you feel quite sure, again. Are you truthful? How near 

 can you come to telling a lie and not tell one? Did you ever hear 

 of the gentleman who advertised for a coachman ? He asked each 

 comer " bow near can you drive to the edge of a precipice and not 

 go over?" One man could drive within two feet, another within 

 one foot, another within six inches, still another would trv to so 

 within an inch or so. None of these would suit. At last one 

 came who said, "I'd keep as far away from it as I could, sir." 

 This was the very man that the situation wanted. Men of busi- 

 ness want the boys who keep as far from a lie as possible. Will 

 you be faithful to your employer? you only with modesty say, 

 "Try me." You must make your employer's interest your own; 

 it is the only honest way to earn your wages, the only way to fol- 

 low the golden rule ; and, my boy, I am sure you will never lose 

 by it. When dull times come, employers are not shortsighted in 



