orld as we thought,
since Peter Cooper lives in it and blesses us.'"

But how did this poor boy become a millionaire? And how did he get
people to love him so?

He did it, boys and girls, by making up his mind to do it at first,
and then sticking to it.

Nobody could have had more hard things to overcome than Peter
Cooper.

His parents were poor and had nine children.

His father moved from town to town, always hoping to do better.

He forgot the old saying, "A rolling stone gathers no moss."

When the fifth baby was born, he was named after the Apostle Peter,
because his father said, "This boy will come to something."

But he was not a strong boy.

He was able to go to school but one year of his life, and then only
every other day.

His father was a hatter, and when Peter was eight years old he
pulled hair from rabbit skins for hat pulp.

Year after year he worked harder than he was able, but he was
determined to win.

When his eight little brothers and sisters needed shoes, he ripped
up an old one to see how it was made. Always after that he made the
shoes for the family.

Do you think a lazy boy would have done that?

When he was seventeen, he bade his anxious mother good-bye, and
started for New York to make his fortune.

Do you know what a lottery is?

It is a way dishonest people have of making money.

Tickets are sold for prizes, and of course only one person can get
the prize, while all the rest must lose their money.

Soon after Peter Cooper reached New York he saw an advertisement of
a lottery.

He might draw a prize by buying a ticket.

Each ticket cost ten dollars.

Peter had just that much money.

He thought the matter over carefully.

He wished very much to have some money, for then he could help his
mother.

So he bought a ticket, and drew--nothing.

Poor boy! he was now penniless.

But he never touched games of chance again.

Years afterward he used to say, "It was the cheapest piece of
knowledge I ever bought."

Day after day the tall, slender boy walked the streets of New York
looking for work.

At last he found a place.

It was in a carriage shop.

Here he bound himself as apprentice for five years at two dollars a
month and board.

You see he could buy no good clothes.

He had no money for cigars or pleasures of any kind.

He helped to bring carriages for rich men's sons to ride in.

There is an old saying, that "everybody has to walk at one end of
l