was full of disappointment. Only once, in all his life, did he know what
happiness and success meant, and that was on his return from his first
voyage, when he landed amid cheers of welcome at Palos, and marched into
Barcelona in procession like a conqueror to be received as an equal by
his king and queen.

Except for that little taste of glory, how full of trouble was his life!
He set out to find Cathay and bring back its riches and its treasures.
He did not get within five thousand miles of Cathay. He returned from
his second voyage a penitent, bringing only tidings of disaster. He
returned from his third voyage in disgrace, a prisoner and in chains,
smarting under false charges of theft, cruelty and treason. He
returned from his fourth voyage sick unto death, unnoticed, unhonored,
unwelcomed.

From first to last he was misunderstood. His ideas were made fun of,
his efforts were treated with contempt, and even what he did was not
believed, or was spoken of as of not much account. A career that began
in scorn ended in neglect. He died unregarded, and for years no one
gave him credit for what he had done, nor honor for what he had brought
about.

Such a life would, I am sure, seem to all boys and girls, but a dreary
prospect if they felt it was to be theirs or that of any one they
loved. And yet what man to-day is more highly honored than Christopher
Columbus? People forget all the trials and hardships and sorrows of
his life, and think of him only as one of the great successes of the
world--the man who discovered America.

And out of his life of disaster and disappointment two things stand
forth that all of us can honor and all of us should wish to copy. These
are his sublime persistence and his unfaltering faith. Even as a boy,
Columbus had an idea of what he wished to try and what he was bound to
do. He kept right at that idea, no matter what might happen to annoy him
or set him back.

It was the faith and the persistence of Columbus that discovered America
and opened the way for the millions who now call it their home. It is
because of these qualities that we honor him to-day; it is because this
faith and persistence ended as they did in the discovery of a new world,
that to-day his fame is immortal.

Other men were as brave, as skillful and as wise as he. Following in
his track they came sailing to the new lands; they explored its coasts,
conquered its red inhabitants, and peopled its shores with the life