If you
will adopt the resolution that you will confer favors whenever you
have an opportunity, you will certainly be surrounded by ardent
friends. Begin upon this principle in childhood, and act upon it
through life, and you will make yourself happy, and promote the
happiness of all within your influence.
You go to school in a cold winter morning. A bright fire is blazing
upon the hearth, surrounded with boys struggling to get near it to
warm themselves. After you get slightly warmed, another schoolmate
comes in suffering with the cold.
"Here, James," you pleasantly call out to him, "I am 'most warm; you
may have my place."
As you slip one side to allow him to take your place at the fire,
will he not feel that you are kind? The worst dispositioned boy in
the world cannot help admiring such generosity. And even though he be
so ungrateful as to be unwilling to return the favor, you may depend
upon it that he will be your friend, as far as he is capable of
friendship. If you will habitually act upon this principle, you will
never want for friends.
Suppose some day you are out with your companions playing ball. After
you have been playing for some time, another boy comes along. He
cannot be chosen upon either side; for there is no one to match him.
"Henry," you say, "you may take my place a little while, and I will
rest."
You throw yourself down upon the grass, while Henry, fresh and
vigorous, takes your bat, and engages in the game.
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