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Show THE BOY AND THE MAN. Once upon a time there lived a man and a boy, and in front of the man's house, there stood a tree, and in that tree, two sparrows had built a nest. -The little boy spied the nest, and having the boy craze for collecting eggs, and not realizing real-izing the sorrow he was causing in the sparrow home, he climbed the tree, and proceeded to take the eggs. Out rushed the man, and commanded the boy to come down. 'When about six feet from the ground, the man grabbed him by the legs, jerked him out of the tree, and beat him cruelly. The man forgot it long ago, but as soon as he entered the door the other day, the boy turned from his desk, and when 'he saw wno Had entered his office his first thought was of that pretty spring afternoon years and years ago, with i the odor of apple blossoms in the air. He re- I membered the nest, and how warm the eggs felt !- in his hand, and then how the big hands grabbed his little legs, and stung his cheeks with sharp y blows. I 1 And the man asked a favor. More, he urged that it be granted, and he appealed eloquently to the other man, who a few years ago had been a boy. But he sat and smiled grimly, and said he was sorry, but the favor could not be granted. Give the boys a chance; treat them kindly. They aren't boys very long, but my, how they remember in the quick change that comes to them, and makes them as old in a day as the men they have watched for years. Elbert Hubbard has said, "Be patient with the boys you are dealing with Soul stuff Destiny awaits just around the corner." And again, "A boy is a man in a cocoon you do not know what it is going to become his life is big with possibilities. He may make or unmake kings, change boundary lines between states, write books that will mould characters, or Invent machines that will revolutionize the commerce of the world." Watch the boys, maybe they're going to vote for you, maybe they'll show you a new oppor tunity, maybe you'll find yourself working for them. The transition comes in the twinkling of nn eye, and you miss it unless you are watching, watch-ing, and the first thing you know the little boy is a man ready to fight or to help you. And the memory of a little boy for little things how it will cling to a little hurt, a tiny sting that from man to man would be less than trivial. But the little boy harbours it in his breast, and it grows and grows, and he is almost unconscious of it, until some day ne is race to face with the man, and then he remembers, and then he rebels. Be patient with the little boys. |