. . . . . 188,000
"The Birds' Christmas Carol," by Mrs. Wiggin . . . . . 100,000
"The Story of Patsy," by Mrs. Wiggin . . . . . . . . . 100,000
"The Leopard's Spots," by Thomas G. Dixon, Jr. . . . 125,000

_Romantic_

"Richard Carvel," by Winston Churchill . . . . . . . . 400,000
"The Crisis," by Winston Churchill . . . . . . . . . . 400,000
"Graustark," by G. B. McCutcheon . . . . . . . . . . . 300,000
"The Eternal City," by Hall Caine . . . . . . . . . . 175,000
"Dorothy Vernon," by Charles Major . . . . . . . . . . 150,000
"The Manxman," by Hall Caine . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113,000
"When Knighthood Was in Flower," by Charles Major . . 400,000
"To Have and to Hold," by Miss Johnston . . . . . . . 300,000
"Audrey," by Miss Johnston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165,000
"The Helmet of Navarre," by Bertha Runkle . . . . . . 100,000

CHAPTER LXIV

READING A SPUR TO AMBITION

The great use in reading is for self-discovery. Inspirational,
character-making, life-shaping books are the main thing.

Cotton Mather's "Essay to Do Good" influenced the whole career of
Benjamin Franklin.

There are books that have raised the ideals and materially influenced
entire nations.

Who can estimate the value of books that spur ambition, that awaken
slumbering possibilities?

Are we ambitious to associate with people who inspire us to nobler
deeds? Let us then read uplifting books, which stir us to make the
most of ourselves.

We all know how completely changed we sometimes are after reading a
book which has taken a strong, vigorous hold upon us.

Thousands of people have found themselves through the reading of some
book, which has opened the door within them and given them the first
glimpse of their possibilities. I know men and women whose whole lives
have been molded, the entire trend of their careers completely changed,
uplifted beyond their dreams by the books they have read.

When Senator Petters of Alabama went to California on horseback in
1849, he took with him a Bible, Shakespeare, and Burns's poems. He
said that those books read and thought about, on the great plains,
forever after spoiled him for reading poorer books. "The silence, the
solitude," he said, "and the strange flickering light of the camp fire,
seemed to bring out the tremendous significance of those great books;
and I treasure them to-day as my choicest possessions."

Marshall Field and other