Boy Wanted

Nixon Waterman

Nixon Waterman

Boy Wanted / A Book of Cheerful Counsel

PREFACE

In presenting this book of cheerful counsel to his youthful friends, and such of the seniors as are not too old to accept a bit of friendly admonition, the author desires to offer a word of explanation regarding the history of the making of this volume.

So many letters have been received from people of all classes and ages requesting copies of some of the author’s lines best suited for the purpose of engendering a sense of self-help in the mind of youth, that he deems it expedient to offer a number of his verses in the present collected form. While he is indebted to a great array of bright minds for the prose incidents and inspiration which constitute a large portion of this volume, he desires to be held personally responsible for all of the rhymed lines to be found within these covers.

It may be especially true of advice that “it is more blessed to give than to receive,” but it is hoped that in this present form of tendering friendly counsel the precepts will be accepted in the same cheerful spirit in which they are offered.

The author realizes that no one is more urgently in need of good advice and the intelligence to follow it than is the writer of these lines, and none cries more earnestly the well-known truth —

Oh, fellow men and brothers,

Could we but use the free

Advice we give to others,

How happy we should be!

While the title of this book and the character of its contents make it obvious that it is a volume designed primarily for the guidance of youth, no one should pass it by merely because he has reached the years of maturity, and presumably of discretion. As a matter of fact Time cannot remove any of us very far from the fancies and foibles, the dreams and dangers of life’s morning hours.

Age bringeth wisdom, so they say,

But lots of times we’ve seen

A man long after he was gray

Keep right on being “green.”

В В В В N. W.

CHAPTER I

THE AWAKENING

Nothing is impossible to the man who can will. – Mirabeau.

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

Who wants you?

You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some with you. – Joubert.

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?

Things don’t turn up in this world until somebody turns them up. – Garfield.

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.

Work has made me what I am. I never ate a bit of idle bread in my life. – Daniel Webster.

“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.”

In the blackest soils grow the fairest flowers, and the loftiest and strongest trees spring heavenward among the rocks. – Holland.

“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.”

Without courage there cannot be truth; and without truth there can be no other virtue. – Walter Scott.

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 sti