XII.

ABSALOM—THE BEAUTIFUL REBEL PRINCE.

“Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son! my son!”—//, Samuel
tL. PF.

Life is 2 leaf of paper white,
Whereon each one of us may write
His word or two, and then cores night;

Though thou have time
But for a line, be that sublime;
Not failure, but low aim, is crime.

—Fames Russell Lowell,

I live for those who love me,
For those I know are true.

For the heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit, too;

For the human ties that bind me,

For the task by God assigned me,

For the bright hopes left behind me,
And the good that I can do.

I live for those who love me,

For those who know me true,
For the heaven that smiles above me,

And awaits my spirit, too;
For the wrong that needs resistance
For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the future in the distance,

And the good that I can do.

—A nonymous.

It may seem strange, and somewhat contradictory, to say
that Absalom’s misfortunes sprung mainly from his fortunes;
but the saying is nevertheless true. The same thing is true
of thousands of boys who have gone wrong, and through

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