DOING

89   Practicality. “Hank Streeter’s Brain-Wave.” Self-esteem. “The Valley of Never.” Opportunity and application. “Yender Grass.”   VIII  “TRIFLES” 101   The value of little things. Sowing and reaping. The power of habit. “‘I Wish’ and ‘I Will.’” Jenny Lind’s humble beginning. Canova’s genius. Present opportunities. “‘Now’ and ‘Waitawhile.’”   IX  THE WORTH OF ADVICE 115   Heeding the sign-post. The value of guide-books. “The World’s Victors.” Good books a boy’s best friend. The danger of knowing too much. “My Boyhood Dreams.” Reading and reflecting.   X  REAL SUCCESS 129   Are you the boy wanted? Money and success. “On Getting Rich.” Thinking and doing. Life’s true purpose. “The Mother’s Dream.”  

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ILLUSTRATIONS

Lincoln’s Birthplace	Frontispiece
Patrick Henry Delivering His Celebrated Speech	Facing page	23
Whittier’s Birthplace	" "	35
Watt Discovering the Condensation of Steam	" "	49
Longfellow’s Birthplace	" "	61
Garfield as a Canal Boy	" "	75
Birthplace of Benjamin Franklin	" "	89
Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon	" "	101

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[Pg 10]
[Pg 11]

“BOY WANTED”

CHAPTER I
THE AWAKENING

Ho, my brave youth! There’s a “Boy Wanted,” and—how fortunate!—you are the very boy!

Who wants you?

The big, busy, beautiful world wants you, and I really do not see how it is going to get on well without you. It has awaited your coming so long, and has kept in store so many golden opportunities for you to improve, it will be disappointed if, when the proper time arrives, you do not smilingly lay hold and do something worth while.

When are you to begin?

Oh, I sincerely hope that you have already begun to begin; that is, that you have already begun to train your hand and head and heart for making the most of the opportunities that await you. In fact, if you are so fortunate as to own thoughtful, intelligent parents, the work of fitting you for the victories of life was begun before you were old enough to give the subject serious consideration.

“When shall I begin to train my child?” asked a young mother of a wise physician.

“How old is the child?” inquired the doctor.

“Two years.”

“Then you have already lost just two years,” was his serious response.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, when asked the same question, said: “You must begin with the child’s grandmother.”

But no matter what has or has not been done for you up to the present time, you and I know that from now on your future welfare will be largely of your own making and in your own keeping. If you will thoughtfully plan your purpose as definitely as conditions will permit and then learn to stick to it through thick and thin, your success in life is quite well assured, and you need not fear that at the end of the journey you will have to say, as does many a man while retrospectively viewing his years:

What is there for you to do?

Everything and anything you can do or care to do. You are to take your pick of all the trades, professions, and vocations of mankind. Look about you and note the thousand and one things now being done by the men of to-day. It will