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secret of the true greatness of Benjamin Franklin, who is considered
by many our foremost American.

~~The Talk.~~

"Some people trust to luck to carry them through the world. Like
Dickens' Micawber, they're 'always waiting for something to turn up.'
I have heard of a man who was so pleased at finding a big horseshoe
that he placed it over his bedroom door. The next morning, as he
closed the door, he jarred the horseshoe from its place and it fell
and struck him such a blow on the head that he was in the hospital for
a week. Such results as this are likely to come when we depend upon
luck. Let us remember that luck never figures in God's calculations.

"I have seen people looking for something like this in their front
yards. [Quickly draw the outlines of the four-leaf clover in black,
and fill in the outlines with broad sweeps of green. With black, trace
the veins lightly, and then put in the letters to spell 'Luck.' This
completes Fig. 13.] What is it? Yes, a four-leaf clover. And when I
saw them looking for it, I thought that they could have been doing a
great deal more good by pulling the weeds in their back yards.

[Illustration: Fig. 13]

"But today we shall talk about a boy who never depended upon luck at
all. This boy had a pair of sharp eyes, and whenever he saw anything
to do, he did it. His name was Benjamin Franklin. Did you ever hear of
him? Yes, I thought so. This boy worked for his older brother in a
printing office in Boston, but the brother used to flog him and treat
him roughly. Benjamin knew that they could never get along well
together, so he went away to Philadelphia.

"In this great city he saw many things which other boys before him had
not seen. He saw that the printing art had wonderful possibilities in
it; he studied and worked hard to improve the business, and today all
of the printers call him the father of the art of printing. He saw
that he ought to know other languages besides English, and so he
became a master of French, Italian and Latin--and luck' hadn't a thing
to do with it! He saw on every hand many chances to help other
people. This prompted him to organize the first police force and the
first fire company in the United Colonies; he organized a military
company; he paved the streets of Philadelphia and taught the people
how to keep them clean; he founded a hospital; he invented the first
practical stove; he accepted many public positions in his earlier
years, including th