The Western Democrat

THE MOTHER OF GOOD LUCK.
"I don't want to stay there. I don't do anything but go errands, and be at everybody's beck and call. I am not learning anything"

Ephraim, a fatherless boy, had gone into a shop, and after being there a few months this was the complaint made nearly every day to his mother.
One day his Uncle John heard him.
"You think you are fit for something higher then?" he said to the boy
"Yes, sir," answered Ephraim. "I don't want to be doing errands all the time."
"But doing errands well is the only real step to promotion in Mr Barrow's warehouse. When you have earned promotion by doing that branch of his business you will rise there, and not till then."
"Pretty small business," muttered the boy with a discontented pucker on his forehead. "I don't care how I do it."
"I am sorry to hear you say so," said Uncle John, "for he only that is faithful in little things can be expected to be faithful in greater things.
If you do not your present work well, Mr Barrow will have no reason to suppose you will do anything else better. Boys must earn promotion to have it. I will tell you a story."
Ephraim liked Uncle John's stories, though he sometimes wanted to quarrel with their moral.
However, he looked up, as much as to say, "Please go on, sir;" and Uncle John went on.
"A young man once went into business on pretty fair prospects. The firm, however, did not go on well. It failed, I think. G. then returned home with bare pockets, in quest of employment.
He met his old Sabbath-school teacher in the street, stated his case, and asked if he knew of any opening. 'Not just now,' answered the gentleman; 'but if you don't want to be idle, and are willing to work, I should like your services in our soup-house, the pay won't be much, but you can be very useful.'"
"A soup-house," cried Ephraim, "after being in a firm! I hope he didn't stoop so."
A soup-house, as some of you know, is a great kitchen where soup is made and served out to the poor during winter, when food is dear and work is scarce.
"Let us see how G. viewed the matter," said Uncle John. "Yes, sir, I'll go," was his answer for G. was a good young man, and thought no situation beneath him where he could minister to the comfort of others. He went into the soup-house, dealt out the tickets, and the soup too, for aught I know, kept the books, and, in a word managed the business the best he could. When the gentlemen who were interested in the soup-house met to see what good it had done they were much surprised with the manner in which the accounts were kept. 'Why, who have we here?' they asked. One of them was the keeper of a large hotel. 'I must have that young man to manage,' he said, 'my concerns.' He found out G., and offered him a handsome salary to become head clerk of his establishment. G. earned the promotion, you see. He went; but he had not been in this hotel many months before one of the boarders, the cashier of a bank, said to the hotel keeper, 'That clerk of yours is a noble fellow; how well he conducts your business,' and it was not long before the cashier offered him a better situation in the bank. G. went. In the course of time the cashier resigned, and the directors said, 'We can't do better than put G. in;' and so he was promoted to that office. And he made as good a cashier as he had a clerk. This gentleman is not cashier now, but he fills one of the most responsible posts in the county, and has a character shining with integrity and Christian worth. He did not despise lowly places, Ephraim."
"But he had what I call—luck, good luck," exclaimed Ephraim.
"But diligence is the mother of good luck," said Uncle John; "mind that boy."—Mrs H. C. Knight.