Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-12-26

enough to face any emergency, hon
est enough to submit to pain rather
than to steal, and truthful enough to
never soil your lips or conscience
with lie"
"Then my Uncle told me of his
own boyhood, of his poverty, his
hindrances, his temptations; and |
saw that the rank Of General did not
come by wishing, but by the greatest
endurance, study and hard work. l
tell you what, 10, as | listened to his
story felt 81 ashamed, and so small,
l thought | would like to crawl away
in hole, any where, almost, if [
could ouly hide, for you know my
Uncle is such noble, grand man.
Then, too, my Uncle told me Of our
great inventors, officers, rulers, whom
the world is delighted to honor, and
I saw that wishing had but little to
do with their achievements and sue
cesses. saw ] had to buckle on my
armOr and go to work.
"That night | could scarcely sleep;
/ kept thinking how insignificant
Uncle must think me, for l knew /
had wished for this, that, and the
other thing in his presence, and so
when l did sleep dreamed that l
was in the woods, and l thought that
all the bushes and trees were waving,
and one big branch seemed like
long, bare arm reckoning to me. l
felt an awesome, queer, uncanny feel
ing, and | was sure / was losing my
way. ! saw one and another path,
but which one to take / knew not,
when suddenly l heard laugh; this
frightened me so much that / Jump
ed; then a voice said, You little
goosey.gander, what brave soldier
you would make, to be sure, afraid
of a little laugh and then l heard
ha! ha! ha! and what seemed to me
to be the most uproarious laughter,
the shout of a hundred fairies. Soon
a tiny old woman approached me,
saying, Il am fairy queen. Ask for
whatever you may wish while you
are in my domain"
"At once exclaimed: wish to
be the oldest General living And
there 1 was, a general in very truth,
but so old l could scarcely see, so
deaf 1 could scarcely hear; was
dressed in costume similar to my
Uncle's. My hands were wrinkled,
long beard hung over my breast,
but it was as white as snow. My
mouth felt so queer that lifted my
hand to discover the reason, and alas!
my teeth were all gone. l tried to
walk, but was so stiff / could scarce
ly place one foot before the other.
ooh, what fool / have been,' |
thought, If only l were boy again!
ooh, Uncle Charles, Uncle CharlesP /"
l screamed.
why my boy, what is the mat
ter, you were grooming and moaning
so in your sleep, I thought something
must be wrong?" were his words.
"Wasn't 1 grateful, though, to find
it was only dream. 1t seemed too
good to be true, to learn that l was
really boy again, that life was be-
fore, and not behind me. / tell you,
10, could scarcely wait for day to
come, te get at positive work. And
since that horrible nightmare, which
taught me the Stiffness of wishing, l
have been changed boy, and l do
not think | will ever fall into that
purposeless talk again. But you
don't like sermons, excuse me, Jo,"
"YOu are a good fellow, John; l
should not be worthy of friendship
such as yours, if 1 did not benefit by
what you have told me. l will try
to follow your example. What do
: you say to our both being manly
men,"
"Those words have the right ring"
And so saying, the two friends walk
| ed off arm in arm.