If you would win the victory in the battle of life, my young friends, you must watch the little things. It is said that there is a barn upon the Alleghany Mountains so built that the rain which falls upon it separates in such a manner that that which falls upon one side of the roof runs into a little stream that flows into the Susquehanna and thence into Chesapeake Bay and on into the Atlantic Ocean; that which falls upon the other side is carried into the Alleghany River, thence into the Ohio, and onward to the Gulf of Mexico. The point where the waters divide is very small, but how different the course of these waters! So it is with people, young or old. A very little thing changes the channel of their lives. Much will depend upon the kinds of tempers you have, boys and girls. If you are sour and cross and crabbed, no one will love you. If you are kind and cheerful, you will have friends wherever you go. Much will depend upon the way in which you improve your school days; upon the kind of companions you have; and upon the kind of habits you form. If you would win a great victory in fighting the battle of life you must look well to the little things. [Illustration: ON ONE OF NEW YORK’S MANY PLAYGROUNDS.] AN IDLE BOY. An idle boy one idle day Played with a gun in an idle way:-- And now the grasses idly wave Above his idle little grave. HUNTING AN EASY PLACE. A nicely dressed young man, fifteen or sixteen years old, who had just finished his course in the high school, stepped into the office of the president of the Smutville Short Line Railroad. “Well,” said the president, looking up from a mass of correspondence, “what can I do for you, sir?” “I have just finished my course in the high school,” the young man began nervously, “and I thought that I might be able to secure a desirable position with your company. I came in to talk with you about it.” The president asked the young man to have a seat. “So,” said the president, “you want a desirable place, eh?” “I do, sir,” said the young man, his heart beating high with hope. “A place,” continued the president, “that would pay you something like a hundred dollars a month?” “Something like that,” said the young man eagerly. “I guess you would like it very well, too, if I could arrange it so that you could report for work at nine o’clock in the mornings and get off every afternoon at three or four o’clock. In other words, you want something easy. I can see by looking at you that you are not accustomed to hard work, and you could not fill a place that required you to report at six o’clock every morning and work until six every afternoon. Do I size you up correctly?” “I think so, sir,” was the reply. “In plain English then, you are looking for a soft place with the Short Line?” “I am, sir.”