Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1915 — NOT QUITE A FAILURE [ARTICLE]

NOT QUITE A FAILURE

MAN'S LIFE’ NOT A 8 PLANNED, BUT DUTY WELL DONE. Quality of Belf-Bacrif»ce Counted For Much When Ambition Was Put Away at the Call, of Filial Affection. “I always like to see ambition in a boy,’’ said the doctor. "The best men are those who as boyß had little opportunity, but who made the most of what they had. As a rule the boys who have worked their way through college are about the best fellows I know.” “I agree with you,” answered the . schoolmaster. “But I sometimes think that there are boys who never go to college who have done even better. Did I ever tell you about John Smith? “It was years ago, and I was principal of the school in a little country town. It was the only high school in the county, and the boys and girls from all round attended. Many of them could not get away from the farms until late in the season and so dropped in at any time during the term. Well, along about Thanksgiving John Smith arrived. He told me he lived six miles back in the country, and had walked in. He was a big, well-set-up boy, with a bright, intelligent face, and I soon found that he had come to study. One day I was struck with the amount of mud on his shoes. ‘You must have a muddy walk to school,’ I remarked. “ ‘Yes, sir,’ he answered, ‘the roads are pretty bad.’ And then I found out that he walked the six miles in every morning and out again at night! If a boy took that trouble to get an education, I was Interested, and I had a quiet talk with him. He had a widowed mother and a little sister, and they owned a small farm. For the past two years John had done all the work himself, and he still had to do it. That was the reason he had to live at home instead of boarding in town. He told me that he wanted to go to college and become a doctor. His father had been an unsuccessful lawyer, who had given up his practice and bought the farm. John told me his plans. He was sure he could get another boy in the neighborhood to look after his place while he was at college, and his mother was as anxious for him to go as he was. “Naturally I gave him all the help I could, and although he had to leave early in the spring, I lent him books and gave him a little personal aid in his work from time to time. “Well, three years more passed in the same way. John kept well up with his studies by hard work, and at last he was ready' to enter college. He was accepted for entrance on the school certificate, and it was a pleasure to see the glad look on his face when I showed him the registrar’s letter saying that he was admitted. He had saved a little money from various odd jobs that he had done, and he told me that he was all ready financially for the first year, and that he had no doubt that he could manage the others.

“I left the school that year, but just before it was time for college to open, I wrote John a letter of counsel and encouragement. I got this brief note in reply: ’I am sorry to say that I am not going to college.’ "I made it a point to go down to see what had prevented him from carrying out his ambition. I found him hoeing corn. He was very glad to see me, and told me what the trouble was. His mother had had a stroke of paralysis. Without a murmur he had given up his cherished plan. When I asked him whether he could not get someone to take care of her, while he went on with his course, he told me that that was Impossible, since his mother depended so entirely upon him. I shall never forget the tragedy and love together In the boy’s face as he talked to me of his vanished hopes and watched his helpless mother.” “I suppose he got to college somehow,” 'remarked the doctor, “and Is now a famouß surgeon.” ’ “No,” replied the schoolmaster, “that was ten years ago, but I heard from him only yesterday. His mother is still alive and still helpless. He is still running the farm, making a small living and caring for her. The little sister he has just sent to the normal school, but he will be a small farmer to the end of his days. And I believe he was just the man to have made a splendid doctor. Yet I hardly think his life has been a failure.” “I should think not,” said the doctor. —Youth’s Companion.