From all of this you have yourself deduced the fact that you do not
"know more than the old folks." If you have not, go ahead and deduce
it right now; for you do _not_ know more than they do. They have lived
so much longer than you have that the accretion of daily experience
has given them a variety of information beside which your book
knowledge is a sort of wooden learning, lifeless and artificial.

The very fact that they have had you for a child and brought you along
safely thus far is proof enough of this. You have no right to
challenge the knowledge or judgment of either of your parents until
you demonstrate that you can do as well or better than they. And that
will be some years yet, will it not? No, decidedly, don't "get too
smart for father."

Even if you really do know more than they, don't let either of the old
folks see that you think so. That attitude on your part is almost
indecent. Be grateful also. How singular that where young men have
everything to be thankful for, they are so seldom grateful.

When parents surround them with every comfort, and make what are
luxuries to the millions necessities to their children; when the youth
is furnished clothes made by the tailor, and money to spend as he
will, and special schools and the most expensive university; when he
is given vacations at seashore, in mountains, on lake, or abroad,
instead of at good hard work, as the sons of the people must spend
their vacations; when a year or two of travel follows his day of easy
graduation; when all is his that thought, and love, and gold can give,
do we not frequently find the young man unappreciative of, and
ungrateful for, these blessings?

Such a man usually takes it for granted that he ought to have all
these things, and a good deal more; that they are his as a matter of
course, and no thanks due to those who gave them; that they are not
much, after all, compared with what some other fellow with a richer
father, and a mother still more doting, has and spends. "Give a boy
too much money to spend and he won't do anything else." There are some
exceptions to this, notable and splendid exceptions, but they are so
few that they prove the rule.

On the other hand, it is generally true that young fellows who, in
comparison with the class just described, have nothing to be thankful
for; who must earn their own bread and "help support the family"; who
"work their way through college," and during vacations put in a good