ike the toad, ugly and
venomous, Wears yet a priceless jewel in its head; And thus our life,
exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in running
brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything."

"Tongues in trees," I thought. "Trees can't talk! That man is crazy.
Books in running brooks! Why nobody never puts no books in no running
brooks. They'd get wet. And that sermons in stones! They get preachers
to preach sermons, and they build houses out of stones."

I was sorry for Shakespeare--when I was thirteen.

But I am happy today that I have traveled a little farther. I am happy
that I have begun to learn the lessons from the bumps. I am happy that
I am learning the sweet tho painful lessons of the University of
Adversity. I am happy that I am beginning to listen. For as I learn to
listen, I hear every tree speaking, every stone preaching and every
running brook the unfolding of a book.

Children, I fear you will not be greatly interested in what is to
follow. Perhaps you are "naturally bright" and feel sorry for
Shakespeare.

I was not interested when father and mother told me these things. I
knew they meant all right, but the world had moved since they were
young, and now two and two made seven, because we lived so much faster.

It is so hard to tell young people anything. They know better. So they
have to get bumped just where we got bumped, to learn that two and two
always makes four, and "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap."

But if you will remember some of these things, they will feel like
poultices by and by when the bumps come.

The Two Colleges

As we get bumped and battered on life's pathway, we discover we get two
kinds of bumps--bumps that we need and bumps that we do not need.

Bumps that we bump into and bumps that bump into us.

We discover, in other words, that The University of Hard Knocks has two
colleges--The College of Needless Knocks and The College of Needful
Knocks.

We attend both colleges.

Chapter II

The College of Needless Knocks

The Bumps That We Bump Into

NEARLY all the bumps we get are Needless Knocks.

There comes a vivid memory of one of my early Needless Knocks as I say
that. It was back at the time when I was trying to run our home to suit
myself. I sat in the highest chair in the family circle. I was three
years old and ready to graduate.

That day they had the little joy and sunshine of the family in