NEVER be ashamed of honest work. Some people are afraid of lowering their dignity, as they call it, by doing common work when occasion really demands it. But people of sense, with true dignity and character, know that honest work is honorable, whenever it may be that they have occasion to do. One writer tells this story of the emperor of Austria:— One day, when traveling in Italy, a wheel of his carriage broke down, and he went to the shop of a blacksmith, in a little village, and asked him to mend it without delay. “I would,” said the smith, “but, as to-day is a holiday, all of my men are away at church. Even the boy who blows the bellows is away. “Now I have an excellent chance to warm myself,” said the unknown emperor. So, taking his place at the bellows (instead of calling one of his attendants to do so), he followed the smith’s directions, and worked as if for wages. When the work was finished, instead of the little sum which he was charged, the sovereign handed out six gold ducats. “You have made a mistake,” said the astonished blacksmith, “and given me six gold pieces, which nobody in this village can change.” “Change them when you can,” said the laughing emperor, as he entered his carriage. “An emperor should pay for such a pleasure as blowing a bellows.” I have known some boys, says the writer, who would have waited long, and sent far for help, before they would have “come down” to blowing a blacksmith’s bellows. It is not boys with the best sense who thus stand upon their dignity.—Selected.