Out in the state of California there is a great valley known as the
Yosemite Valley, and here once lived a tribe of Indians who tried to
explain how the wonderful streams and trees and rocks came to be.
The story of one of the highest peaks, El Capitan, is very interesting.
One day some Indian boys went fishing in a beautiful lake in the
Yosemite, and after they had grown tired they lay down in the sun upon a
rock beside the lake. They soon fell fast asleep. How long they slept
they did not know, but when they awoke they found that during their
sleep the rock on which they lay had been stood on end, so that they
were now nearly a mile high in the air and had no means of getting down.
They were in a bad plight.
But the animals in the valley which were friendly to mountaineers saw
their misfortune and held a conference as to how to help the boys get
down. They decided that the only thing to do was to try to climb up the
face of the cliff. But the rock, was too steep, and so they tried to
jump up. First the raccoon tried it, then the bear, then the squirrel,
then the fox, and finally the mountain-goat. It was all to no avail,
however, and they gave up in discouragement, and were about to leave the
boys to perish, when the inch-worm came along and offered her services.
The animals laughed her to scorn. What could she do, with her
snail-pace, when they all, who were so fleet of foot, had to give it up!
But she would not be laughed out of her purpose, and she began to climb
up the cliff. Slowly, inch by inch, she crawled up, so slowly that it
seemed as if she would take a thousand years to get there. But as she
passed crag after crag the animals below ceased making fun of her and
began to shout encouragement. At last she reached the top. And then the
Great Spirit turned her into a huge butterfly so strong that she flew
down, with the boys on her back, to safety.
There is a verse in the Old Testament which says that the race is not
always to the swift, which means that it is not always the strongest who
win. It is the one who keeps at it. Many a bright boy fails in school
because the lessons come so easily he does not work. Many a dull boy
wins because he sticks to it and plods away.
If you are tempted to trust too much to your brightness, remember the
animals who made fun of the inch-worm. If you are dull, remember the
inch-worm, take courage, and plod away. You will get there sometime.