“I guess my father must have been a pretty bad boy,” said one
youngster.
“Why?” inquired the other.
“Because he knows exactly what questions to ask when he wants to
know what I have been doing.” (Text.)
(989)
* * * * *
I once met a veteran sailor, one of the old Hull and Decatur
breed, who had been to sea forty years, and he told me he
had never known a mutiny on board ship where the captain had
risen from before the mast, implying that such an officer had
acquired experience, and knew how to manage men as well as
vessels.--JAMES T. FIELDS.
(990)
* * * * *
It is better to be singed by the flame and suffer than not to know the
experiences of living deeply. This seems to be the lesson in Helen A.
Saxon’s verse below:
Hast singed thy pretty wings, poor moth?
Fret not; some moths there be
That wander all the weary night
Longing in vain to see
The light.
Hast touched the scorching flame, poor heart?
Grieve not; some hearts exist
That know not, grow not to be strong,
And weep not, having missed
The song.
--_The Reader._
(991)
See CONFIDENCE; FAMILIARITY; LIFE, THE WINGED.