s three meals a day and a place to lie
down to sleep, then another day of the same grind, then a year of it
and years following until our machine is worn out and on the junkpile,
means little. "One day nearer home" for such a worker means one day
nearer the scrapheap.

Such a worker is like the packhorse who goes forward to keep ahead of
the whip. Such a worker is the horse we used to have hitched to the
sorghum mill. Round and round that horse went, seeing nothing, hearing
nothing, his head down, without ambition enough to prick up his ears.
Such work deadens and stupefies. The masses work about that way. They
regard work as a necessary evil. They are right--such work is a
necessary evil, and they make it such. They follow their nose. "Dumb,
driven cattle."

But getting a vision of life, and working to grow upward to it, that is
the work that brings the joy and the greatness.

When we are growing and letting our faculties develop, we will love
even the packhorse job, because it is our "meal ticket" that enables us
to travel upward.

"Helping" the Turkeys

One time I put some turkey eggs under the mother hen and waited day by
day for them to hatch. And sure enough, one day the eggs began to crack
and the little turkeys began to stick their heads out of the shells.
Some of the little turkeys came out from the shells all right, but some
of them stuck in the shells.

"Shell out, little turkeys, shell out," I urged, "for Thanksgiving is
coming. Shell out!"

But they stuck to the shells.

"Little turkeys, I'll have to help you. I'll have to shell you by
hand." So I picked the shells off. "Little turkeys, you will never know
how fortunate you are. Ordinary turkeys do not have these advantages.
Ordinary turkeys do not get shelled by hand."

Did I help them? I killed them, or stunted them. Not one of the turkeys
was "right" that I helped. They were runts. One of them was a regular
Harry Thaw turkey. They had too many silk socks. Too many "advantages."

Children, you must crack your own shells. You must overcome your own
obstacles to develop your own powers.

A rich boy can succeed, but he has a poorer chance than a poor boy. The
cards are against him. He must succeed in spite of his "advantages."

I am pleading for you to get a great arm, a great mind, a great
character, for the joy of having a larger life. I am pleading with you
to know the joy of overcoming and having the angels come and minister
to yo