



Produced by David Edwards, Paul Clark and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)









"Boy Wanted"


Nixon Waterman

[Illustration]

    Do not loiter or shirk,
      Do not falter or shrink;
    But just think out your work
      And then work out your "think".




OTHER BOOKS BY NIXON WATERMAN


 A BOOK OF VERSES

 IN MERRY MOOD
    A Book of Cheerful Rhymes.

    Cloth, 12mo, each, $1.25.

 FORBES & COMPANY, CHICAGO


[Illustration: CABIN IN WHICH LINCOLN WAS BORN]




                             "BOY WANTED"

                      A BOOK OF CHEERFUL COUNSEL

                                  BY
                            NIXON WATERMAN

                     AUTHOR OF "THE GIRL WANTED,"
                       "A BOOK OF VERSES," ETC.

                                TORONTO
                        McCLELLAND & GOODCHILD
                                Limited




                            COPYRIGHT, 1906
                                  BY
                            NIXON WATERMAN

                         _All Rights Reserved_




    TO

    --THE BOY WHO DISCERNS
      HE CAN NEVER BE "IT"
    UNTIL HE DEVELOPS
      SOME "GIT-UP-AND-GIT."




Acknowledgments are hereby made to the publishers of Life, Success,
Saturday Evening Post, Woman's Home Companion, St. Nicholas, Christian
Endeavor World, Young People's Weekly, Youth's Companion, and other
periodicals, for their courteous permission to reprint the author's
copyrighted poems which originally appeared in their publications.




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."

                                                                  N. W.




CONTENTS


 CHAPTER                                                            PAGE

 I THE AWAKENING                                                      11

 The life partnership. When to begin. Foresight. "Boy Wanted."
 The power of mind. "Couldn't and Could." Selfmade men. "Deliver
 the Goods."


 II "AM I A GENIUS?"                                                  23

 Genius defined. Inspiration and perspiration. "Stick to It."
 Genius and patience. "Keep Pegging Away." Examples of patience.
 "The Secret of Success."


 III OPPORTUNITY                                                      35

 What is a fair chance? Abraham Lincoln. Depending on self.
 "Myself and I." The importance of the present moment. "Right
 Here and Just Now." Poverty and success. "Keep A-Trying."


 IV OVER AND UNDERDOING                                               49

 Precocity. Starting too soon as bad as starting too late. The
 value of health. "Making a man." The worth of toil. "How to Win
 Success." Sharpened wits. "The Steady Worker."


 V THE VALUE OF SPARE MOMENTS                                         61

 Wasting time. "The 'Going-to-Bees!'" The possibilities of one
 hour a day. "Just This Minute." The vital importance of
 properly employing leisure moments. "Do It Now."


 VI CHEERFULNESS                                                      75

 The value of smiles. "To Know All is to Forgive All." Hope and
 strength. "A Cure for Trouble." Carlyle on cheerfulness. "The
 One With a Song." Pessimism as a barrier to success. "A Smile
 and a Task." A profitable virtue. "An Open Letter to the
 Pessimist."


 VII DREAMING AND 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."




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




"BOY WANTED"




CHAPTER I

THE AWAKENING


[Sidenote: 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?

[Sidenote: 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?

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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."

[Sidenote: 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."

[Sidenote: 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 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:

[Sidenote: Vigilance in watching opportunity; tact and daring in
seizing upon opportunity; force and persistence in crowding opportunity
to its utmost of possible achievement--these are the martial virtues
which must command success.--PHELPS.]

    O'er life's long and winding pathway,
      Looking backward, I confess
    I have not at looking forward
      Been a genuine success.

What is there for you to do?

[Sidenote: Work is the inevitable condition of human life, the true
source of human welfare.--TOLSTOI.]

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 not be so very long till all of these men will
be old enough to retire from active service, and then you and the other
boys, who in the meantime have grown to man's estate, will be called
upon to perform every one of the tasks these men are now doing. Doesn't
it look as if there would be plenty of honest, earnest, wholesome
toil for hand and head in store for you as soon as you are ready to
undertake it? You cannot wonder that the busy old world is ever and
always hanging out its notice--


    "BOY WANTED"

[Sidenote: People do not lack strength; they lack will.--VICTOR HUGO.]

    "Wanted--A Boy." How often we
    This quite familiar notice see.
    Wanted--a boy for every kind
    Of task that a busy world can find.
    He is wanted--wanted now and here;
    There are towns to build; there are paths to clear;
    There are seas to sail; there are gulfs to span,
    In the ever onward march of man.

[Sidenote: You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer
and forge one yourself.--FROUDE.]

    Wanted--the world wants boys to-day
    And it offers them all it has for pay.
    'Twill grant them wealth, position, fame,
    A useful life, and an honored name.
    Boys who will guide the plow and pen;
    Boys who will shape the ways for men;
    Boys who will forward the tasks begun,
    For the world's great work is never done.

[Sidenote: The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.--NAPOLEON.]

    The world is eager to employ
    Not just one, but every boy
    Who, with a purpose stanch and true,
    Will greet the work he finds to do.
    Honest, faithful, earnest, kind,--
    To good, awake; to evil, blind,--
    A heart of gold without alloy,--
    Wanted--the world wants such a boy.

[Sidenote: While we are considering when to begin, it is often too late
to act.--QUINTILIAN.]

No, the world does not insist that you are to accept a position and
begin work with your hands at once, but it wishes you to begin to think
right things. "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." What you think
will have much to do in determining what you are to become.

    The mind is master of the man,
    And so "they can who think they can."

[Sidenote: Where boasting ends, there dignity begins.--YOUNG.]

[Sidenote: Impossible is a word found only in the dictionary of
fools.--NAPOLEON.]

This influence of the mind in thus shaping the man is very well set
forth by James Allen, who says: "A man's mind may be likened to a
garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild;
but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth.
If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless
weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind