A boy recently answered an advertisement of a certain firm in New York
which wanted an office-boy. He went to the office, and as he was a
bright, neat-looking boy, he made a good impression upon the manager.
The manager liked him and told him to report for work the following
morning.
The boy was about to leave the office in great glee, when the manager
called him back and asked him to write his name, in order that he might
see whether or no he was a good writer. The boy wrote his name in such a
miserable scrawl that the manager could hardly read it, and he told the
boy that he was very sorry, but he would be obliged to cancel his
agreement, and could not take him on.
He then advised the boy to take lessons in penmanship, in order to
improve his writing.
"But," the boy said, "why do I need to be a good penman? I'm going to be
a manager some day, and I'll have a stenographer to do my writing for
me."
"Yes," said the man, "that may be true. But before you get to be a
manager anywhere you will have to work up to it through a great many
years of lower positions, and you must learn to write." The boy could
not see why, and went to find work elsewhere, before improving his
writing.
There are a great many people just like that boy. They expect to be
managers, superintendents, presidents, but they don't see that they must
work up to it, and every step must be faithfully and patiently taken.
Some boys expect to be good at long division, and they do not take any
pains to learn subtraction thoroughly. Or they expect to be good in
English, and will not study grammar. They are like the boy in this
story.
Some girls expect to appear like ladies, but they pay no attention to
what their mothers say about neatness,--such as keeping their hair in
order and their shoes clean. These girls are also like the boy of the
story.
Most things worth while in life have to be worked for, and as you
cannot well get upstairs at one jump, but must take the steps between
one by one, so the good things of life come by patiently filling in each
task with care and faithfulness. Then the big things will take care of
themselves.