r if
he was doing right. One night his father took up the cards and called
him to play whist.

"I don't think I'll play whist any more," he said quietly. "I've been
thinking that perhaps it wasn't right for me to play."

"Are you setting yourself up to judge your father and mother, young
man?" his father asked, sternly.

"No, I didn't say it isn't all right for you to play," was the reply.
"But you know I am President of the Christian Endeavor Society and some
of the members don't think it is right to play. So I guess I'd better
not."

His father looked at him thoughtfully for a minute, then picked up the
cards and threw them back into the drawer.

"Charlie," he said, "I want you to understand that I think you have done
a manly thing to-night, and I honor you for your courage."

That was the end of whist in that house.

Courage showed itself in much the same way in the life of J. Marion
Sims, the great surgeon. He used to tell how, when he was a boy at a
South Carolina School, he was able to take a stand that had its effect
on his whole after-life. Many of his fellow students were sons of
wealthy planters, and their habits were not always the best. On several
occasions they tried to lead him into mischief. They were particularly
anxious to make him a companion in their drinking bouts. Twice he gave
way to their pleas, but after sorrowful experience of the results of his
lapses, he decided to make a brave stand. So he said to his tempters:

"See here, boys, you can all drink, and I cannot. You like wine and I do
not. I hate it; its taste is disagreeable, its effects are dreadful,
because it makes me drunk. Now, I hope you all will understand my
position. I don't think it is right for you to ask me to drink wine when
I don't want it, and when it produces such a bad effect on me."

To say this required real courage, but the results were good, not only
in himself, but also, fortunately, in some of his companions.

III

TRUTH TELLING

Those who, in early life, learn to be courageous in the face of
difficult tasks will be ready for the temptation that is apt to come to
most young people to compromise with what they know to be right and
true, to allow an exception "just this once!" in the straightforward
course they have marked out for themselves. And the worst of it is that
such a temptation is apt to come without the slightest warning and to
present itself in such a light that it is easy to find an excuse fo