I.

To THe Boys or America: A KInpLy GREETING.

“The angel which redecmed me fromall evil, bless the lads.”— Gemeszs xlviii., 16.

“It is better to be a boy in a green field than a knight of many orders in a state
ceremonial.’—George Macdonald.

“I long to have the children feel that there is nothing in this world more
attractive, more earnestly to be desired, than manhood in Jesus Christ.’—enry
Ward Beecher.

“They are idols of hearts and of households,
They are angels of God in disguise;
His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses,
Nis glory still gleams in their eyes.
Task not a life for these dear ones,
All radiant as others have done,
But that life may have just enough shadow
To temper the glare of the sun.”
—Charles M. Dickinson.

A good many years ago—more than the writer cares to
a group of boys, five in number, were resting in the shade

 

tell
of a wide-spreading maple. They were very tired, for they
had been playing rather vigorously all morning. It was in the
second week of vacation—one of those hot July days when
about noon-time there comes a strange silence in the heated air,
and birds and beasts, as well as boys, are glad to seek the shel-
ter of the trees. 0
‘Well, boys,” said the oldest of the group, “do you know
Wednesday next is my birthday, and at breakfast this morn-
ing father and mother talked the matter over, and said that if
I desired to have a birthday party they were quite willing. So
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