The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-04-10
AN AUCTION.

Going! going! gomez The other
day, as l was walking through a side
street in one OF our large cities, l heard
these words ringing out from u room
so crowded with people that | could
Just see the auctioneer's face and up
lifted hammer above the heads of the
crowd.
"Going! Going! Going! Gone"
and down came the hammer with a
sharp rap.
do not know how or why it was,
but the words struck me with a new
force and significance. l had heard
chem hundreds of times before, with
only a sense of amusement This time
they sounded solemn.
Going! Going! Gomez
THAT is the way it is with life," I
said to mysclf-"with time"
This world is a sort of auction room;
we do not know that we are buyers;
we are, in fact, more like beggars; we
have brought no money to exchange
for precious minutes, hours, days OF
years; they are given to us. There is
no calling IL Of terms, no noisy auc-
t%ioneer, no hammer; but, nevertheless,
the time is going! going! gone!"
The more l thought Of it, the more
solemn did the words sound, and the
more did they seem to me a good mot
to to remind one of the value of time.
When we are young we think old
people are preaching and pressing when
they say SO much about it-when they
declare so often that days, weeks, ever
years, are short. | can remember when
a holiday, a whole day long, appeared
to me an almost inexhaustible play
spell; when one afternoon, even,
seemed an endless round of pleasure,
and the week that was to come seemed
longer than docs a whole year now.
One needs to live many years before
one learns how little time there is in a
year-how little, indeed, there will be
in the longest possible life-how many
things one will still be obliged to leave
undone.
But there is one thing, boys and
girls, that you can realize, if you will
try-ifyou will stop and think about it "a
little; and that is, how fast and how
steady the present time is slipping
away. However long life may seem to
you, as you look forward to the whole of
it, the present hour has only sixty min
utes, and minute by minute, second by
second it is "going! going! gone!" If
you gather nothing from it as it passesit
is gone" forever. Nothing is so hope
lessly lost as 'lost time 1t makes
me unhappy when l look back and see
how much time | have wasted; how
much | might have learned and done
l had but understood how short is the
hour.
All the men and women who have
made the world better, happier or
wiser for having lived in it, have done
so by working diligently and persist
emily. Yet, l am certain that not even
one of these, when Choking backward
from his manhood's prime say not
The specter of his mis-spent time"
Now, don't suppose | am so foolish as
o think that all the preaching in the
world can make any thing look to young
eyes as it looks to old eyes; not a bit
# it.
But think about it a little; don't let
line slip away by the minute, hour,
lay, without getting something out of
t! Look as the clock now and then,
md listen to the pendulum, saying Of
very minute, as it flies - .'Going!
gone!"
ioing! going! gone! Is this an auction, here,
nobody bids, and nobody buys, and
there Is no auctloneer2
70 hammer, no crowd, no noise, no push Of
women and men,
Atu wv - SuuHCC tuul is pheSluK HOW WIFI
never come back again!
'oIng! going! gonei Here is a morn Of June
and fragrance. md color, and light. and
million sounds a-tune. :
h, look! Oh. listen! De wise, md take this
wonderful thing
jewel such ms you will 0 find in the treas.
ury OF a king!
DING! going! gone! What is next on the list2
N afternoon OF purple and gold. fair as an
amethyst,
nd, large enough to hold all good things
under the sun.
Id 1t in now, and crowd it full with lessons. =
and work, and fun!
ding! golngl gone! Here IL year to DO
had!
whole magnificent year held out to every .
lass and lad! y
ays, and weeks. and months! Joys, and $
lnbors, and pains! r
axe it, spend II, buy with 1t, lend II, and pre-. !.
sently count your gains, !
eoingl gone! The largest lot comes !
last; y
ere, with Its Infinite unknown wealth il OF.
fered u lifetime vast! h
ut Of 1t may BIO wrought the deeds OF hero !
and slge-- j"
pine, bidl Come. bid! lest a brave bright v
youth fade out to a useless agei II
Late Helen Jackson, IN st Nicholas. Il
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