If we say that boyhood lasts fifteen or sixteen years, I
have known three generations of boys, some of them city
boys and some of them country boys, and they are all
substantially alike—so nearly alike that the old rules of 30
industry and patience and perseverance and self-control
are as applicable to one generation as to another. The
fact is, that what your fathers and teachers have found by
experience to be good for boys will be good for you; and
what their experience has taught them is bad for boys will
be bad for you. You are just boys, nothing more nor less.
1. Why would a boy of fifteen be more likely to "think he knew all about it" than an equally honest and intelligent man of fifty? Apply to your answer the preceding story about the two knights. What is the value of experience?
2. Retell the story of the boy's mistake about the river. Why was he so ashamed?
3. What is meant by saying that all boys are substantially alike? What four rules does the author say are always applicable? Compare the training of a boy in ancient Sparta and of a page in medieval times with that of a modern schoolboy.
THE LESSON OF THE WATER MILL
By Sarah Doudney
Listen to the water mill;
Through the livelong day,
How the clicking of its wheel
Wears the hours away!
Languidly the autumn wind 5
Stirs the forest leaves,
From the field the reapers sing,
Binding up their sheaves;
And a proverb haunts my mind
As a spell is cast, 10
"The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past."
Autumn winds revive no more
Leaves that once are shed,
And the sickle cannot reap
Corn once gatherèd;
Flows the ruffled streamlet on, 5
Tranquil, deep, and still,
Never gliding back again
To the water mill;
Truly speaks the proverb old,
With a meaning vast— 10
"The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past."
Take the lesson to thyself,
True and loving heart!
Golden youth is fleeting by, 15
Summer hours depart;
Learn to make the most of life,
Lose no happy day,
Time will never bring thee back
Chances swept away! 20
Leave no tender word unsaid,
Love while love shall last;
"The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past."
Work while yet the daylight shines, 25
Man of strength and will!
Never does the streamlet glide
Useless by the mill;
Wait not till to-morrow's sun
Beams upon thy way, 30
All that thou canst call thine own
Lies in thy to-day;
Power and intellect and health
May not always last;
"The mill cannot grind 5
With the water that is past."
Oh, the wasted hours of life
That have drifted by!
Oh, the good that might have been—
Lost, without a sigh! 10
Love that we might once have saved
By a single word;
Thoughts conceived but never penned,
Perishing unheard;
Take the proverb to thine heart, 15
Take, and hold it fast—
"The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past."
1. How does a water mill work? Find a picture of one. What was this mill probably used to grind? Why is it appropriate to have the reapers in the picture in the first stanza?
2. What other proverbs with the same meaning as this one can you find?