that one large diamond was worth whole mines of copper and
silver; that a handful would make him a prince; that a mine of
diamonds would buy a kingdom. That night wealthy Ali Hafed went to bed
a poor man, for poverty is discontent. When the morning came he sold
his farm for gold, and went forth in search of diamonds. Years passed.
Old and gray he returned in rags and poverty. He found his dear ones
had all died in penury. He also found that the peasant who bought his
farm was now a prince. One day, digging in the white sand in the
stream at the foot of the garden, the peasant saw a shining something
that sent his heart to his mouth. Running his hands through the sand,
he found it sown with gems. Thus were discovered the Golconda mines.
Had Ali Hafed dug in his own garden, instead of starvation, poverty
and a broken heart, he would have owned gems that made nations rich.

This legend reminds us how youth constantly throws away its
opportunities. Each day some man exchanges a farm in Pennsylvania for
the prairies of Dakota, only to find that the hills he despised have
developed oil that makes his successor rich. Each year purposeful men
grow rich out of trifles that the careless cast away. The sewers of
Paris have made one man wealthy with treasure beyond that of gold
mines. The wastes of a cotton mill founded the fortune of one of the
greatest families in England. Peter Cooper used to say that he built
the Cooper Institute by picking up the refuse that the butcher shops
threw aside. A boy tugging over a shoe-last in Haverhill, Mass., was
told by his mother to give himself to making better and stronger
lasts. Twenty years of enthusiastic study ended, and he was president
of one of the greatest of our railways. In 1870, a youth sat upon the
slag heap of a mine in California. But he gave his full mind to each
clod, and going away for a few weeks he returned with a machine that
extracted greater treasure from the slag than men had ever gained from
the mines. All wise men unite in telling us that ours is a world where
prosperity is won by fidelity to details, and that wealth comes
through little improvements. But, best of all, a purposeful enthusiasm
gives mental wealth, and achieves a treasure beyond gold and rubies--a
worthy character.

Nor is there any dross that love will not refine away, nor any vice
that love can not expel from the heart. Wordsworth was so impressed
with the evil of avarice that he could compare it onl