Perhaps you have thought that because I am rather a silent man, and do
not very often write you a letter, that I have not very much feeling and
do not take interest in you. But no one knows how closely I am watching
my boy as Time is bringing him up from boyhood to manhood.
Sometimes your grandmother worries about your being where there may be
bad boys; but I tell her that among so many there must be both good and
bad, and if you choose the bad you show very poor judgment. I think if a
boy picks out bad companions it shows there is something bad in himself.
She says I ought to keep giving you good advice, now you are just
starting in life, and charge you to be honest and truthful and so forth.
I tell her that would be something as it would be if you were just
starting on a pleasant journey, and I should say, “Now, William Henry,
don’t put out your own eyes at the beginning, or cut the cords of your
legs!” Do you see what I mean? A boy that is _not_ honest and truthful
puts out his own eyes and cripples himself at the very beginning.
There is a good deal said about arriving at honor and distinction. I
don’t want you to think about _arriving_ at honor. I want you to take
honor to start with. And as for distinction, a man, in the long run, is
never distinguished for anything but what he really is. So make up your
mind just what you want to pass for, and be it. For you will pass for
what you are, not what you try to appear. Go into the woods and see how
easily you can tell one tree from another. You see oak leaves on one,
and you know that is oak all the way through. You see pine needles on
another, and you know that is pine all the way through. A pine-tree may
want to look like an oak, and try to look like an oak, and think it does
look like an oak, as it can’t see itself. But nobody is cheated. So a
rascally fellow may want to appear fair and honest, and try to appear
fair and honest, and think he does appear fair and honest, as he can’t
see himself. But, in the long run, nobody is cheated. For you can read a
man’s character about as easy as you can the leaves on the trees.
Sometimes I sit down in a grocery store and hear the neighbors talked
about, and ’t is curious to find how well everybody is known. It seems
as if every man walked round, labelled, as you may say, same as preserve
jars are labelled, currant, quince, &c. Only he don’t know what his
label is. Just as likely as not a man may think his label is Quince
Marmelade, when ’t is only Pickled String Beans!
Just so with boys. Grown folks notice boys a great deal, though when I
was a boy, I never knew they did. The little affairs of play-time and
school-time, and their home-ways are all talked over, and by the time a
boy is twelve years old, it is pretty well known what sort of a man he
will make.
Now don’t mistake my meaning. I don’t want you to be true because
people will know it if you are not, but because it is right and noble to
be so. I want you to be able to respect yourself. Never do anything that
you like yourself any the less for doing.
A boy of your age is old enough to be looking ahead some, to see what he
is aiming at. I don’t suppose you want to drift, like the sea-weed, that
lodges wherever the waves toss it up! Set up your mark, and a good high
one. And be sure and remember that, as a general thing, there is no such
thing as luck. If a man seems to be a lucky merchant, or lawyer, or
anything else, ’t is because he has the talent, the industry, the
determined will, that make him so. People see the luck, but they don’t
always see the “taking pains” that’s behind it. I remember you wrote us
a letter once, and spoke of a nice house, with nice things inside, that
you meant to have by “trying hard enough.” There’s a good deal in that.
We’ve got to try hard, and try long, and try often, and try again, and
keep trying. That house never’ll come down to you. You’ve got to climb
up to it, step by step. I don’t know as I have anything to say about the
folly of riches. On the contrary, I think ’t is a very good plan to have
money enough to buy books and other things worth having. I don’t see why
a man can’t be getting knowledge and growing better, at the same time he
is growing richer. Some poor folks have a prejudice against rich folks.
I haven’t any. Rich people have follies, but poor people copy them if
they can. That is to say, we often see poor people making as big fools
of themselves as they can, with the means they have. Money won’t hurt
you, Billy, so long as you keep common sense and a true heart.
We are all watching you and thinking of you, here at home. If you
_should_ go wrong ’t would be a sad blow for both families. Perhaps I
ought to tell you how I feel towards you, and how, ever since your
mother’s death, my heart has been bound up in you and Georgie. You would
then know what a crushing thing it would be to me if you were found
wanting in principle. But I am not very good, either at talking or
writing, so do remember, dear boy, that even when I don’t say a word,
I’m thinking about you and loving you always. God bless you!