You look with joy to-day along life's vista clear,
And great will be your deeds through many a happy year,
And smiling friends will come to crown with glad acclaim
A hero, when you reach the glittering heights of fame.

Your life will be above the common herd, I trow,
You will not toil and drudge as they are doing now:
Success attend your steps; a word I would not say
To chill your warmest hopes, or shade your sunny way.

Your mark is high, my child, then aim your arrow straight,
The world has need to-day, of heroes good and great,
You feel so strong; and wish life's battle would begin,
You'll find a chance ere long, to do your best and win.

But may be you will fail, 'tis ten to one you will,
And men will laugh, to see your lack of pluck and skill,
Perhaps you will not have one mighty thing to do;
But many little things will prove if you are true.

To carry brick and stone for someone else's wall,
To do the hardest part and get no praise at all,
To see a weaker man upheld by circumstance,
And find the path hedged high, just when you would advance;

Or, in the jostling crowd, to slip, and fall, and see,
How many men will scoff at your adversity,
And though your heart may ache, you must not shed a tear,
But plan, and push, and work, and smother all your fear.

No darling mother then can sympathize with you,-
No father when you stick, will kindly pull you through;
Through years of grasping toil the wealth you gain, and fame,
May vanish all, and leave you poverty and shame.

But you need not be lost, all people are not bad,
The Lord has servants good, as He has ever had;
They'll find you in your grief, and lend a helping hand,
And point the road that leads up to the 'Better Land.'

Remember this, my child, wherever you may go,
That God rules over all, though it may not seem so;
And what you sow, you'll reap, with joy or misery,
If not in time, O, surely in eternity.