the way you love each of us in return! And no lad can
say he's poor when he's got the power to love in him! and the sweet
sacrifice! And you know the kind of love that all sound young hearts
give to the crippled and the helpless and the dumb. Grandpa would say
Yes to that if he could. And so would the sparrows on the window sill!

"But, of course, we'll not be forgetting that you've got your youth, and
most precious it is, and two rows of teeth which don't need bridging!
Also, you're as good-looking as any boy ought to be, you're improving in
strength, and you're healthy. Why, there's many a millionaire who'd give
his fortune if he had that grand little tummy of yours, which can digest
the knobs off the doors!

"Already--at twelve!--you've got the habit of work, and, oh, what a
blessing that habit is, and what an insurance against Satan! And you've
got the book habit, a glorious one, since it gives you information,
entertains you, and teaches you to think, to argue things out for
yourself. Yes, it's reading which makes a lad strong in himself. You
don't need racket, and the company of other lads, in order to have a
good time. And, John, you know how to listen, and that's uncommon, too.

"But thinking is your greatest blessing. You get your joy, not out of
what you _have_, for God in His wisdom knows how little that is, but out
of what you _think_. If there's something you haven't, you go ahead and
supply it with your thoughts, creating beauty where there isn't any,
building a world of your own. Never before have I met a lad who could
dream as you can dream. Ah, and what it's done for you--in that dark,
dirty, little flat!

"Dreams! Behind every big thing that's ever happened was a dream! The
Universe itself was first of all just an idea in the mind of Almighty
God. In His wisdom and love He left it to man to work out other plans
less grand. And who's ever been great that didn't dream? First you dream
a thing; then you do it. Take Samuel Morse, for instance. He had a
wonderful thought. Next, with his telegraph, he'd constructed the nerves
of the world! And there's Mr. Marconi. Not so long ago, they'd have
burned him as a gentleman witch!

"Imagination! I've no doubt you've often envied Aladdin his wonderful
lamp? (They're not making so many of those lamps these days!) But, boy
dear, every lad's got a lamp that's just as wonderful! The lamp of
knowledge. Get knowledge, John. Then--_rub it with your imagination_.

"