70 . : ROBERT DAWSON.

In short, emphatic sayings like these did my father
imprint great truths upon us by the earnestness and
force with which he uttered them, Their value and
wisdom we gradually experienced as we obeyed them.
Was I not then tasting some’ of the satisfaction of
achievement? And did I not feel an increasing strength
for the new duties that might be before me?

In due time the cloth was bought and made up.
And with what hearty interest did I watch every stitch
which my mother took before me, and how many times
did I go and examine the quality of the cloth with
quite a business-like air!

That blue satinet jacket and trousers—how pleasant
is thelr memory to me! ‘The finest broadcloths of my
later days can never possess the charm which invested
them. It was the first successful prosecution, by my-
self, of my father’s principles, so carefully taught—#o
work out, unshrinkingly, my own good purposes. Then
I laid the foundation of a habit to which I owe all my
success—I PERSEVERED. Then I first began to feel

the value of steady, manly, self-relying toil.