a literary
paper issued in Boston.

"I take the paper for my family," said Ferguson. "It contains quite
a variety of reading matter, stories, sketches and essays."

"It seems quite interesting," said Harry.

"Yes, it is. I will lend you some of the back numbers, if you like."

"I would like it. My father never took a literary paper; his means
were so limited that he could not afford it."

"I think it is a good investment. There are few papers from which
you cannot obtain in a year more than the worth of the subscription.
Besides, if you are going to be an editor, it will be useful for you
to become familiar with the manner in which such papers are
conducted."

When Harry went home he took a dozen copies of the paper, and sat up
late reading them. While thus engaged an idea struck him. It was
this: Could not he write something which would be accepted for
publication in the "Standard"? It was his great ambition to learn to
write for the press, and he felt that he was old enough to commence.

"If I don't succeed the first time, I can try again," he reflected.

The more he thought of it, the more he liked the plan. It is very
possible that he was influenced by the example of Franklin, who,
while yet a boy in his teens, contributed articles to his brother's
paper though at the time the authorship was not suspected. Finally
he decided to commence writing as soon as he could think of a
suitable subject. This he found was not easy. He could think of
plenty of subjects of which he was not qualified to write, or in
which he felt little interest; but he rightly decided that he could
succeed better with something that had a bearing upon his own
experience or hopes for the future.

Finally he decided to write on Ambition.

I do not propose to introduce Harry's essay in these pages, but will
give a general idea of it, as tending to show his views of life.

He began by defining ambition as a desire for superiority, by which
most men were more or less affected, though it manifested itself in
very different ways, according to the character of him with whom it
was found. Here I will quote a passage, as a specimen of Harry's
style and mode of expression.

"There are some who denounce ambition as wholly bad and to be avoided
by all; but I think we ought to make a distinction between true and
false ambition. The desire of superiority is an honorable motive, if
it leads to honorable exertion. I will mention Napol