uld be persuaded to spend one evening with their boys in
the reading and discussion of some selection in _Journeys_, they would
not willingly forego the pleasure thereafter. It has happened so many
times that we know this is not an overstatement. Fathers by the score
have written us on the subject. One says, "I have solved the problem of
keeping my boys off the streets, or, rather, _Journeys_ has done it for
me." "I have never spent a happier evening. The boys staid up with me
till after their usual bed time and when they had retired, I read on for
half the night," says another. "I feel young again, and John and I are
great chums. _Reminiscences of a Pioneer_ kept me telling stories long
after we had finished reading the sketch." Who are these fathers?
Clergymen, lawyers, doctors, teachers, we may expect, for they are
somewhat interested in reading, because of their life work. But they are
not the most numerous, by any means. Railroad men, manufacturers,
farmers, men in hundreds of vocations acknowledge the delight of reading
_Journeys_ with their children. Is there anything finer, more wholesome,
more inspiring than the thought of fathers and children reading
together, and together feeling the inspiration that radiates from the
great masterpieces.

But this chapter is not an argument for the purchase of _Journeys_. That
you, father of a growing boy, are reading these lines is evidence that
you have thought well enough of the _Journeys_ idea to place a set of
books in your family. You have done this because you recognized that in
this age of specialists, you, a business man, could not be expected to
select reading matter for your son and assist him in his growth and
development with the same skill as can those who have devoted many years
to that special problem. No attempt is made to advise you on the conduct
of your business or to direct the management and control of your son.
But a sincere effort has been made to help you to join with your boy in
that hearty sympathy which will make him happier, better and more of a
man; which will make you young again and add to your pleasure without
increasing your burdens. What we want is to make the books most
effective, to help them be the power for good that we know they can be,
and more than anything else, to make them a living bond between father
and son. So let us examine the books together with these thoughts in
mind and see if we cannot find just the things that will arouse