CHANCES. 
dressed in pyjamahs, in shirt sleeves, reclining in a 
long armed chair, pipe in mouth, and the Ceylon 
Observer in his hand. He tosses it aside with a jeer 
and a sneer, muttering: “It is all very fine for 
Millie to write in this style, but look at the chances 
he had ; no »uch luck now for the fellows of our 
times. Just let me have a chance like that he had, 
and such a chance as the chances he has lost, would n’t 
I have done a precious sight better than he.” 
“ Chances” are always happening; it is not chances 
that are awanting, but sharpness of perception and 
prompt, decision, when, where, and how, to grasp 
them, and when to let them alone and pass by, as 
unsuitable. Many grasp the the latter,, and wonder 
why th'^y don’t succeed ; a good many seize hold of 
the former, but the “when, where, and how,” don’t 
to enter into their cahuiladoiii. The “when” 
is at ;i wrong times the “'where,” a bad locality, 
-and the “how,” without previously calculating 
the £. s. d. available. Yet they don’t and 
v^on’t blame themselves. Their brains, or mental 
calcuhotions, if they ever made any calculation 
;it all, tvere not to blame. “ They have no luck.” 
They have never had the chances their more for- 
tunate acquaintances had.” Is it a want of chance, 
or want of luck, that some have gone and ex- 
amined a. piece of land, with a view to purchase, and 
gone away pronouncing it is bad, and altogether un- 
suitable for coffee. Shortly afterwards the land has 
been purchased by another p.trty who considers it, as it 
afterward- proved, to be very good. What about luck, 
111 this case? No doubt there are instances of luck, 
but they are exceptional. Depend upon it, the state 
of one’s brain and clearness of perception are the rule, 
and nno' her essential to success is promptitude and 
decision. What matters it if you see a chance, if it is 
floating gently apart, or even remaining stationary, so 
that you have only to stretch out your hand and grasp it? 
What is the use of this chance, if you keep your hands 
in your pocket’s, probably rattling your coin, or count- 
ing if there is enough? The time you have been 
counting, quite absorbed, looking down on the ground, 
having at last come to the conclusion that you might 
s > I ely venture has been taken advantage of by some one 
sharper than yourself. 
You slowly draw your hand from your pocket, 
still lovingly clasping the rupees, loath or afraid to part 
with them, b' lowly they tinkle back into the pocket, 
slowly the hand is raised, you look up, and find — 
the prize is gone! “Too late.” “Too cautious.” 
These four short words have probably ruined as many 
