n are not very different from the boys of any 25
other generation.

If we say that boyhood lasts fifteen or sixteen years, I
have known three generations of boys, some of them city
boys and some of them country boys, and they are all
substantially alike--so nearly alike that the old rules of 30
industry and patience and perseverance and self-control
are as applicable to one generation as to another. The
fact is, that what your fathers and teachers have found by
experience to be good for boys will be good for you; and
what their experience has taught them is bad for boys will
be bad for you. You are just boys, nothing more nor less.

1. Why would a boy of fifteen be more likely to
"think he knew all about it" than an equally honest
and intelligent man of fifty? Apply to your answer
the preceding story about the two knights. What is
the value of experience?

2. Retell the story of the boy's mistake about the
river. Why was he so ashamed?

3. What is meant by saying that all boys are
substantially alike? What four rules does the
author say are always applicable? Compare the
training of a boy in ancient Sparta and of a page
in medieval times with that of a modern schoolboy.

THE LESSON OF THE WATER MILL

BY SARAH DOUDNEY

Listen to the water mill;
Through the livelong day,
How the clicking of its wheel
Wears the hours away!
Languidly the autumn wind 5
Stirs the forest leaves,
From the field the reapers sing,
Binding up their sheaves;
And a proverb haunts my mind
As a spell is cast, 10
"The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past."

Autumn winds revive no more
Leaves that once are shed,
And the sickle cannot reap
Corn once gathered;
Flows the ruffled streamlet on, 5
Tranquil, deep, and still,
Never gliding back again
To the water mill;
Truly speaks the proverb old,
With a meaning vast-- 10
"The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past."

Take the lesson to thyself,
True and loving heart!
Golden youth is fleeting by,