dwriting on the wall and a bump to
save us.

Think of what might happen to you today. Your home might burn. We don't
want your home to burn, but somebody's home is burning just now. A
conflagration might sweep your town from the map. Your business might
wreck. Your fortune might be swept away. Your good name might be
tarnished. Bereavement might take from you the one you love most.

You would never know how many real friends you have until then. But
look out! Some of your friends would say, "I am so sorry for you. You
are down and out." Do not believe that you are down and out, for it is
not true. The old enemy of humanity wants you to believe you are down
and out. He wants you to sympathize with yourself. You are never down
and out!

The truth is, another chapter of your real education has been opened.
Will you read the lesson of the Needful Knocks?

A great conflagration, a cyclone, a railroad wreck, an epidemic or
other public disaster brings sympathy, bravery, brotherhood and love in
its wake.

There is a silver lining to every hard knocks cloud.

Out of the trenches of the Great War come nations chastened by
sacrifice and purged of their dross.

Chapter IV

"Shake The Barrel"

How We Decide Our Destinies

NOW as we learn the lessons of the Needless and the Needful Knocks, we
get wisdom, understanding, happiness, strength, success and greatness.
We go up in life. We become educated. Let me bring you a picture of it.

One day the train stopped at a station to take water. Beside the track
was a grocery with a row of barrels of apples in front. There was one
barrel full of big, red, fat apples. I rushed over and got a sack of
the big, red, fat apples. Later as the train was under way, I looked in
the sack and discovered there was not a big, red, fat apple there.

All I could figure out was that there was only one layer of the big,
red, fat apples on the top, and the groceryman, not desiring to spoil
his sign, had reached down under the top layer. He must have reached to
the bottom, for he gave me the worst mess of runts and windfalls I ever
saw in one sack. The things I said about the grocery business must have
kept the recording angel busy.

Then I calmed down. Did the groceryman do that on purpose? Does the
groceryman ever put the big apples on top and the little ones down
underneath?

Do you? Is there a groceryman in the audience?

Man of sorrows, you have been slandered. It never occurred