wn prices.
If they are worth those figures, their fortune is made. A celebrated
painter was once asked how he mixed his colors. He replied that

HE "MIXED THEM WITH BRAINS."

Mix brains with your business. Like the opium or chloral slave you will
be able to endure a larger quantity each day, and the effect will not
be darkness and death, but light and life. Simply because you think you
can do a thing is no great sign you can do it. You must have brains and
probabilities in your favor. You must absolutely have done something
very nearly like it. I never saw a more signal instance of the general
self-conceit of the race than in the experience of a young man who once
sold a little rubber reed which he laid on his tongue, and with which

HE MOCKED ALL KINDS OF BIRDS.

After seeing him do it, the crowd would gather about in great herds,
with their "quarters" high in the air, anxious to purchase, and just as
sure they could do the same thing as the eight o'clock man that he can
get a crowd into his store. I do not remember a solitary instance where
a purchaser ever acquired the least facility in imitating the sounds of
birds, and I have been tempted to believe the "machine" was a "dummy" by
which the salesman conveyed to the gaping crowd the hope of acquiring
his wonderful art. Do not, in the journey of life, attempt impossible
stages of travel because they look easy at the start. Stop at each inn
which the experience of years has shown to be necessary for your
continued comfort. But never, on any account, lie down between the inns,
for the outlaws called Failure and Discredit will fall upon you and work
your destruction. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge nor wisdom in the
grave." "In the morning sow thy seed." "Let us crown our selves with
rosebuds before they be withered."

[Illustration]

COMPANIONS.

But to our tale.--Ae market night
Tam had got planted unco right
Fast by an ingle bleezing finely
Wi reaming swats that drank divinely;
And at his elbow Souter Johnny,
His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony;
Tam lo'ed him like a very brither--
They had been fou for weeks thegither!--Burns.

I cannot but feel much apprehension in approaching a
subject so nearly allied to the actual inner character of a man. "A man
is known by the company he keeps." I cannot admonish the blind that they
should see