difference in quality, and the other is the use which is made of the
article into which the iron is manufactured.

[Illustration: Watch Spring and Screws.]

I suppose, if these different pieces of metal could think, and had the
power of speech, this piece of old iron would complain to the other
pieces which are of more value, and say to the watch spring, "I am just
as good as you are, we were both dug from the same ore bank. I remember
the time when we were both cast into the hot fire and melted in the
furnace; after that I was taken to the foundry, and made into a stove,
and after a few years of use I was rejected and cast into the alley. I
have had to lie about in the mud and in the cold and snow, and men have
passed me by and scorned me as though I were of no value. But I want you
to understand, Mr. Clockspring and Mr. Watchspring, that I am just as
good as you are, and there is no reason why I should be cast out into
the mud and cold, while you are placed in a gold case and carried in a
gentleman's pocket."

The nail also would cry out, and say that he was just as good as the
little screws which are used in the watch, and would complain against
being driven violently into a board, where it is compelled, year after
year, to hold a board on to the side of a building; to have putty placed
over its head, and then paint over the top of that, so that nobody could
even so much as see where it was, or know what it was doing.

Now, the old iron, and the nail, and the others have no right to
complain. There is a vast difference of quality, and there is also a
difference of work.

The higher grades and better qualities of metals are secured by refining
processes. Again and again the metal is cast in the fire and melted.
Sometimes it is beaten on the anvil into such shapes and forms as will
render the metal of greater service, and consequently of more value.

Suppose this metal had feeling, and the power to express its wish. Do
you not see how it would cry out against being cast into the fire, and
being beaten with great hammers upon the anvil? I am sure the fire, the
hammers, and the anvil bring no sense of pleasure to the metal while
being refined and being beaten into such forms as render it of greatest
value.

Just so, in some senses at least, are all boys and girls alike. If they
were all permitted to grow up in neglect, without being governed by
thoughtful parents, without being educated and refined, without being