ns and heavy
weight are known only to the bearers. How easy other people's burdens
seem to us compared with our own. We do not appreciate the secret
burdens which almost crush the heart, nor the years of weary waiting
for delayed success--the aching hearts longing for sympathy, the hidden
poverty, the suppressed emotion in other lives.

William Pitt, the great Commoner, considered money as dirt beneath his
feet compared with the public interest and public esteem. His hands
were clean.

The object for which we strive tells the story of our lives. Men and
women should be judged by the happiness they create in those around
them. Noble deeds always enrich, but millions of mere money may
impoverish. _Character is perpetual wealth_, and by the side of him
who possesses it the millionaire who has it not seems a pauper.
Compared with it, what are houses and lands, stocks and bonds? "It is
better that great souls should live in small habitations than that
abject slaves should burrow in great houses." Plain living, rich
thought, and grand effort are real riches.

Invest in yourself, and you will never be poor. Floods cannot carry
your wealth away, fire cannot burn it, rust cannot consume it.

"If a man empties his purse into his head," says Franklin, "no man can
take it from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best
interest."

"There is a cunning juggle in riches. I observe," says Emerson, "that
they take somewhat for everything they give. I look bigger, but I am
less, I have more clothes, but am not so warm; more armor, but less
courage; more books, but less wit."

Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
'T is only noble to be good.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.
TENNYSON.

CHAPTER XIV.

OPPORTUNITIES WHERE YOU ARE.

To each man's life there comes a time supreme;
One day, one night, one morning, or one noon,
One freighted hour, one moment opportune,
One rift through which sublime fulfillments gleam,
One space when fate goes tiding with the stream,
One Once, in balance 'twixt Too Late, Too Soon,
And ready for the passing instant's boon
To tip in favor the uncertain beam.
Ah, happy he who, knowing how to wait,
Knows also how to watch and work and stand
On Life's broad deck alert, and at the prow
To seize the passing moment, big with fate,
From opportunity's extended hand,
When the great clock