"THE WORLD OWES ME A LIVING."
A FEW days ago, as two boys passed by where I was sitting under a tree, I heard one of them say to the other:— "I tell you what 'tis, Jim, I ain't going to work. It wasn't my choosing coming into the world. But, now I'm here, I'm bound to have a good time, and not have to work for it, either. The world owes me a living." When I heard Tom Jones say this, I couldn't help wondering what he had ever done to make the world in debt to him. He has been fed and clothed and taken care of, from the time he was a baby till he became old enough to do something for himself; but he has always been an idle boy, and instead of being a help to his parents he is a burden to them. I've heard some men make the same remark that he did, but I never could quite understand it, for I noticed that they were always idle and miserable persons, who never did anything to benefit anybody. When I look around me, and notice how many things have been done, before any of us were born, to provide for our comfort and enjoyment, I don't see how any one like Tom Jones can say the world owes him anything. There are roads and bridges and railroads which have been built for our use, canals cut, and steamboats and sailing vessels crossing all the bodies of water, to carry us wherever we want to go. There are stores of all kinds where we may get food and clothing and everything else we need; schools where we can be educated, and libraries where we may learn many curious and wonderful facts. Some of these things have been done by the people who have lived before us, and many things by those who are now living. When so much is done by others for us to enjoy, why isn't it a duty for us to do our share for the419good of all? If everybody followed Tom Jones' example, I'm afraid the world would be very different from what it is now. I remember at one time hearing a lecturer speak of the great debt of the world to the inventors of printing, of the steam-engine and of the telegraph, but I have not heard that these inventors ever called for their pay. It doesn't seem to be the way for people who do great benefits to the world to ask to be paid for it. It is always those who are idle, and who want to get something for nothing, who make such a demand. We cannot all become inventors, but we can do what we have to do well, and we can all add something to the happiness of those around us. It appears to me that instead of the world owing us a living, we are the ones who are in debt to the world. If this is true, we ought to live and work so that we may, in part at least, pay up our debt, and so that the world may be richer and better for our having lived in it.—Golden Days.