1887 



(;i.kamn(tS liN HKK (U i;j ri.'i-; 



61 



complish certain results. If, when we come 

 to put this in practict', and the result equals 

 or exceeds our expectations, we, as a rule, 

 feel happy over it. I liave seen a great many 

 young people made unhappy by putting their 

 expectations too liigh, and I liave been 

 through a good deal of this experience my- 

 self. I liave always been in the habit of 

 working ninreoi' less with tools. But one sad 

 thing about uiy work, and one source of 

 great uidiappiness. has been that 1 planned 

 too much in rainbow colors. Kspecially was 

 this the case when I was a boy. I would de- 

 cide to build some implement or some i»iece 

 of furniture ; and as I was short of means I 

 concluded to do the work myself. When 

 the aiticle was finished it almost invariably 

 took more time and money than I had lig- 

 ured on, and. with few exceptions, it did not 

 work as well, nor look as well, as I had pic- 

 tured it in my imagination. A good many 

 times it had to be abandoned, and it was 

 often laid aside, or allowed to stay where T 

 last used it. an eyesore and a cause of un- 

 happiness every time my eye rested upon it. 

 I remember one day. when father and I were 

 planting corn. I had seen a liand corn-plant- 

 er, and I told him I thought I could make 

 one. He objected, on the ground that my 

 machines didn't work, and that T would be 

 wasting nails and lumber. I told him, how- 

 ever, that if it did not work 1 would i)ay for 

 the lumber, and I would draw the nails all 

 out and put them back in their places. Un- 

 der these conditions he consented. It did 

 not work, and, witli a sad heart, I pulled it 

 to pieces, put the nails away, and cleared 

 every thing up out of sight, as if no corn- 

 planter had ever been made. It was a use- 

 ful lesson to me. The next time I wanted 

 to indulge my inventive faculties I remem- 

 bered the corn-planter, and was saved some 

 unhappiness by not going into it. Al)out 

 this time I began to discover I was not a 

 good mechanic— at least, that I was not a 

 good cari»enter and joiner. The principal 

 reason was, I never took time to do my work 

 nicely, and this oftentimes occasioned fail- 

 ure. Besides, where a machine succeeded 

 it looked so unsightly that I was ashamed to 

 have it seen. I concluded to have my line 

 of work, and work at it ; and when I wanted 

 to have carpenter work or blacksmith work 

 done, get a carpenter or blacksmith to do it. 

 I find the same disposition among many of 

 the young friends wlio are at work here. A 

 young man thought he could make a corn- 

 marker; his employer told him he could not— 

 he had not had the experience. But the boy 



had quite an opinion of his mechanical abili- 

 ties, and so he went to work without per- 

 mission. It took him three times as long as 

 it would have taken an experienced man, 

 and it kept giving out in one place and then 

 another until it was quite a source of un- 

 happiness all round. The young man who 

 has charge of our greenhouse has become 

 quite skillful in making seeds and plants 

 grow, but he makes terribly poor work when 

 he attempts to put up shelves or ben(;hes. I 

 have had hard work to convince him that he 

 is not a good carpenter; and. furthermore, 

 that it would not pay him to learn to lio 

 good carpenter work. 1 told him I was (luite 

 satisfied that he could, by serving an aj)- 

 prenticeship. learn to do nice carpenter 

 work, and do it quickly ; but as he had chos- 

 en to work with seeds and plants, he couM 

 earn much more money l)y sticking to his 

 business than to try to put up shelves and 

 benches. Une of his fellow-workmen, wlio 

 receives the same pay he does, would do the 

 work nicely and quickly, without any show- 

 ing or educating. Xow. although I most 

 heartily advise havijig a shop and some car- 

 penter tools on every farm, or around every 

 home. 1 think it quite important to beware 

 of undertaking work you can not do profita- 

 bly. If a farmer or gardener has spare time 

 during the winter, or during evenings, he 

 may ynactice using carpenter tools ; but 

 when he has something else to do in his own 

 line of work, for which he can earn wages 

 enough to pay a carpenter or blacksmith, 1 

 would say. " By all means do it."' 



I have now given you some sources of un- 

 happiness, the moral to which would l)e this : 

 If you want to be happy, and enjoy your 

 work, be careful about putting your expecta- 

 tions too high. If you have attempted a good 

 many things, and failed, let these failures 

 teach you a lesson ; and the lesson is, that 

 you do not overvcdr your own (i.bilitkfi. I 

 have now in mind a very good i)erson, whose 

 life has almost been made a failure because 

 he constantly insists that he is capable of 

 directing others how to do work ; but the 

 truth is. he has never first proved his alnlily. 

 by making a success in small things. The 

 fact that his life has been a series of failures 

 does not seem to have taught him humility 

 at all. In contrast with his disposition I re- 

 member a young man who asked me for work ; 

 and when the subject of wages came up lie 

 said. '■ Mr. Hoot, give me exactly what ijou 

 think I am w(nth. and I shall be happy 

 and satisfied." lie is now receiving a thou- 

 sand dollars a year. I do not mean to say 



