taly along the shores of
the Mediterranean, was a stunted and straggling plant, with a small and
inferior seed, but after long years of patient and continued
cultivation, it has grown to its present plump and prolific proportions.
All the beautiful fruits which now grow in our orchards were at one time
unsightly and undesirable. The apple was small and sour, and
unpalatable; but by pruning and grafting and fertilizing, it has grown
to be not only beautiful to the eye, but delicious to the taste. The
acrid and unwholesome berries, which formerly grew on the mountain ash,
have been developed into the sweet and juicy pear. By cultivation, the
acrid and bitter sloe has grown into the beautiful plum. The same is
also true of the potato, the turnip and the cabbage.

Boys and girls can only be developed into useful men and women by the
influence of the week-day and Sunday-school, the Christian home and the
Church, by reading and studying the Bible and other good books.

When you are restricted or corrected by your parents, you may oftentimes
feel very much irritated and may feel rebellious, and may think that you
do not have as many privileges or as much freedom as some of the other
boys and girls whom you know. But you must remember that all this is
done by your parents for your good, and later on in life you will see
the value of it all and be very grateful to your parents for what they
have done for you.

When I was a boy, in the little village where I lived they organized a
cannon company of six or eight boys, who were to accompany the men who
went to other villages to listen to political speeches before elections,
and then to march in a torch-light procession. I was at that time a boy
about twelve years old. I was asked to join. The boys were all to wear
red blouses and red caps, and to my thought just then, nothing in the
world was so much to be desired as the torch-light procession and the
red blouse and cap, and to be permitted to march behind the drum and the
fife, hauling the little cannon after us.

I shall never forget how I cried and how ugly I felt toward my father
when he would not let me be one of the cannon boys and wear a red blouse
and a red cap. He said that at night I ought to be at home and in bed,
and not be exposed to possible bad influences, the danger of catching
cold and of other bad results which he could clearly see, but which I,
at that time, thought were only imaginary.

When I grew to be a