"Their Love was like the lava-flood
That burns in Ætna's breast of flame."
And when with envy Time, transported,
Shall think to rob us of our joys,
You'll in your girls again be courted,
And I'll go wooing in my boys.--Percy.
On flies time, and thus the tale goes on. You are in love
with an amiable maiden, and she is pleased. If you could see further
into her heart you would find she was idolatrous. But this matter of
courtship must have shown you how careless you have been with your money
through all those years you might have been hoarding it for this great
need. But you did not save your wages, probably, or if you did you are
an exceptional young man. You now need money. You should work about
fifteen months before you marry. It will be a long, tedious, unpleasant
pull, trying to the affections, and it is generally very trying to the
health; but it is necessary, and if you have not the persistence to save
money for fifteen months, in the meantime quarreling and making up, with
all the quarters of the moon, you have not the solidity of citizenship,
and will be better unmarried. "Successful love takes a load off our
hearts, and puts it upon our shoulders" says Bovee. Square up your
shoulders! Get under the load so that you can carry it! The days of
responsibility have come. The larger the responsibilities look, the
deeper the young man usually loves. The day of the Chicago fire a man
put up a pine shed on the ruins of a marble palace, and on his sign he
painted
"ALL GONE BUT WIFE AND HOPE!"
People who thought those two things a small capital were greatly
mistaken, for that same man is now rich again. When you hear of a man
being ruined by getting married, ask for names and dates. The name will
usually settle it. Along the front of the lake at Chicago is a
breakwater. In hot weather this pier is nearly covered with men of
leisure, taking midsummer-night dreams. They are the so-called
"harvesters" who start out in droves into the country after something
to do--"forced to search for work and not find it!" Marriage has not
ruined them. You will find that the men your adviser shows you who has
been ruined by marriage, was a born wharf-rat, fit only to be shot with
a gun big enough to save the expense of any further funeral.