Being some words of counsel from an old Yankee to his son Bill when the latter is about to enter college.

Faith, Bill? You remember how ye used to wake

an' cry,

An' when I lit a candle how the bugaboos 'u'd fly?

Well, faith is like a father in the dark of every

night—

It tells ye not t' be afraid, an' mebbe strikes a

light.

Now, don't expect too much o' God, it wouldn't

be quite fair

If fer anything ye wanted ye could only swap a

prayer;

I'd pray fer yours, an' you fer mine, an' Deacon

Henry Hospur,

He wouldn't hev a thing t' do but lay abed an'

prosper.

If all things come so easy, Bill, they'd hev but little

worth,

An' some one with a gift o' prayer 'u'd mebbe own

the earth.

It's the toil ye give t' git a thing—the sweat an'

blood an' care—

That makes the kind o' argument that ought to

back yer prayer.

Fer the record o' yer doin'—I believe the soul is

planned

With some self-workin' register t' tell jest how ye

stand.

An' it won't take any cipherin' t' show, that

fearful day,

If ye've multiplied yer talents well, er thrown 'em

all away.

When yer feet are on the summit, an' the wide

horizon clears,

An' ye look back on yer pathway windin' thro' the

vale o' tears;

When ye see how much ye've trespassed, an' how

fur ye've gone astray,

Ye'll know the way o' Providence ain't apt t' be

your way.

God knows as much as can be known, but I don't

think it's true.

He knows of all the dangers in the path o' me an'

you.

If I shet my eyes an' hurl a stun that kills—the

King o' Siam,

The chances are that God 'll be as much surprised

as I am.

If ye pray with faith believin', why, ye'll certainly

receive,

But that God 'll break His own good law is more 'n

I'll believe.

If it grieves Him when a sparrow falls, it's sure as

anything,

He'd hev turned the arrow, if He could, that broke

the sparrow's wing.

Ye can read old Nature's history that's writ in rocks

an' stones,

Ye can see her throbbin' vitals an' her mighty rack

o' bones,

But the soul o' her—the livin' God, a little child

may know

No lens er rule o' cipherin' can ever hope t' show.

There's a part o' God's creation very handy t' yer

view,

All the truth o' life is in it an' remember, Bill, it's

you.

An' after all yer science ye must look up in yer

mind

An' learn its own astronomy the star o' peace t' find.

There's good old Aunt Samanthy Jane that all her

journey long

Has led her heart to labor with a reveille of song.

Her folks hev robbed an' left her, but her faith in

goodness grows;

She hasn't any larnin', but I tell ye, Bill, she knows!

She's hed her share o' troubles; I remember well

the day

We took her t' the poor-house—she was singin' all

the way.

Ye needn't be afraid t' come where stormy Jordan

flows,

If all the l'arnin' ye can git has taught ye half she

knows.

There's a many big departments in this ancient

school o' God,

An' ye keep right on a l'arnin' till ye lay beneath

the sod,

All the books an' apperaytus, all the wisdom o'

the seers

Will be jest a preparation fer the study o' the years.