a book, act in a theatre,
make music--it doesn't matter what; if it comes to you, if you feel
you can do it, just do it. You'll not do it well all at once; but try
and try until you _can_ do it well. And don't ask anybody if they
think you can do it; they'll be sure to say no; and then you'll be
disheartened--What's disheartened? It's the miserable feeling you
would get if I said you would never be able to learn to play the
piano. You'd try to do it all the same, perhaps, but you'd do it
doubtfully instead of with confidence."

"What's confidence?" said Beth.

"You are listening to me now with confidence. It is as if you said, I
believe you."

"But I can't say 'I believe you' to arithmetic, if I want to do it."

"No, but you can say, I believe I can do it--I believe in myself."

"Is that confidence in myself?" Beth asked, light breaking in upon
her.

"That's it. You're getting quite a vocabulary, Beth. A vocabulary is
all the words you know," he added hastily, anticipating the inevitable
question.

Beth went on with her weeding for a little.

"And there is another thing, Beth, I want to tell you," her father
recommenced. "Never do anything unless you are quite sure it is the
right thing to do. It doesn't matter how much you may want to do it,
you mustn't, if you are not quite, quite sure it is right."

"Not even if I am just half sure?"

"No, certainly not. You must be quite, quite sure."

Beth picked some more weeds, then looked up at him again: "But, papa,
I shall never want to do anything I don't think right when I'm grown
up, shall I?"

"I'm afraid you will. Everybody does."

"Did _you_ want to, papa?" Beth asked in amazement.

"Yes," he answered.

"And did you do it?"

"Yes," he repeated.

"And what happened?"

"Much misery."

"Were you miserable?"

"Yes, very. But that wasn't the worst of it."

"What was the worst of it?"

"The worst of it was that I made other people miserable."

"Ah, that's bad," said Beth, with perfect comprehension. "That makes
you feel so horrid inside yourself."

"Well, Beth, just you remember that. You can't do wrong without making
somebody else miserable. Be loyal, be loyal to yourself, loyal to the
best that is in you; that means, be as good as your friends think you,
and better if you can. Tell the truth, live openly, and stick to your
friends; that's the whole of the best code of morality in the world.
Now we must go in."

As they walked down the gard