urse there are times when
it is good for a man to look inside and take stock--self-examination,
you know--but looking _out_ and _up_ is more difficult, to my mind. And
there is a kind of looking up, too, for guidance and blessing, which is
the most important of all, but I'm not talking to you on that subject
just now. I'm trying to warn you against that habit which so many
people have of staring at the ground, and seeing and knowing nothing as
they go along through life. I've suffered from it myself, Punch, more
than I care to tell, and that's why I speak feelingly, and wish to warn
you in time, my boy.

"Now, there's another thing," continued my father. "You're fond of
rambling, Punch, and of reading books of travel and adventure, and I
have no doubt you think it would be a grand thing to go some day and try
to discover the North Pole, or the South Pole, or to explore the unknown
interior of Australia."

"Yes, father," I replied, in a tone which made him laugh.

"Well, then, Punch, I won't discourage you. Go and discover these
places by all means, if you can; but mark me, you'll never discover them
if you get into the habit of keeping your eyes on the ground, and
thinking about yourself and your own affairs. And I would further
advise you to brush up your mathematics, and study navigation, and learn
well how to take an observation for longitude and latitude, for if you
don't know how to find out exactly where you are in unknown regions,
you'll never be a discoverer. Also, Punch, get into a habit of taking
notes, and learn to write a good hand, for editors and publishers won't
care to be bothered with you if you don't, and maybe the time will come
when you won't be able to make out your own writing. I've known men of
that stamp, whose penmanship suggested the idea that a drunk fly had
dipped its legs in the ink-pud an' straggled across his paper."

These weighty words of my dear father I laid to heart at the time, and,
as a consequence I believe, have been selected on more than one occasion
to accompany exploring parties in various parts of the world. One very
important accomplishment which my father did not think of, but which,
nevertheless, I have been so fortunate as to acquire, is, sketching from
Nature, and marking the course of rivers and trend of coasts. I have
thus been able not only to make accurate maps of the wild regions I have
visited, but have brought home many sketches of interesting scenes o