ercise he had been taking.

"What has Isaac been about?" was the whispered question which went
round. When put to him he replied, "I have been chasing cattle to
pasture." He was understood to mean his father's cattle.

After school, he waited till all the pupils had left the schoolroom,
before he went up to the teacher to give his excuse for being late at
school.

"What made you so late?" asked the teacher.

"I was taking Jim in hand again, sir;" and he gave him an account of his
proceeding, adding at the close, "I thought you would excuse me, sir."

"Very well, you are excused."

Reader, if you have enemies who annoy you, _take them in hand_ in the
same way that Isaac did, and you will be certain, if you persevere to
conquer them.

[Illustration: _Learning the Printer's Trade_]

OVERWORKED BOYS

The boys of our time are too much afraid of work. They act as if the
honest sweat of the brow was something to be ashamed of. Would that they
were all equally afraid of a staggering gait and bloated face! This
spirit of laziness builds the gambling houses, fills the jails, supplies
the saloons and gaming places with loiterers, and keeps the alms houses
and charitable institutions doing a brisk business.

It doesn't build mammoth stores and factories, nor buildings like the
Astor Library and Cooper Institute. The men who built such monuments of
their industry and benevolence were not afraid of work.

All the boys have heard of the great publishing house of the Harpers.
They know of their finely illustrated papers and books of all kinds, and
perhaps have seen their great publishing house in New York City. But if
I should ask the boys how the eldest of the brothers came to found such
an illustrious house, I should perhaps be told that he was a
"wonderfully lucky man."

He was lucky, and an old friend and fellow-workman, a leading editor,
has revealed the secret of his luck. He and the elder Harper learned
their trade together, many years ago, in John Street, New York. They
began life with no fortune but willing hands and active brains;--fortune
enough for any young man in this free country.

[Illustration: "_Let's break the back of another token_."]

"Sometimes after we had done a good day's work, James Harper would say,
'Thurlow, let's break the back of another _token_ (a quarter of a ream
of paper),--just break its back.' I would generally reluctantly consent
just to _break the back_ of the _token_; but