THE COMER by Edmund Leamy

He may be now an office boy,
A messenger, or clerk,
The smallest paid in the employ
Of him who gives him work;
But if he toils with willingness
And wears a cheery grin,
He's on the roadway to success,
That chap is bound to win!

No power can keep that fellow down;
He'll leave them all behind,
The higher paid who leer and frown
And tell him he is blind
To do more than he's paid to do
And not to ever shirk;
Who say: "At five o'clock I'm through
With miserable work!"

Not long he'll be an office boy;
Employers quickly see
Who works because the task is joy
And not just for his fee;
And others too will help him climb
To far heights of success --
Wealth will be his, and fame, in time,
Who works with willingness.


THE BRIDGE BUILDER by Will Allen Dromgoole

An old man going a lone highway,
Came at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and wide and steep
With waters rolling cold and deep.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting your strength with building here
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way;
You've crossed the chasm deep and wide,
Why build you this bridge at eventide?"

The builder lifted his pld grey head,
""Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way;
The chasm that was as naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He too must cross in the twilight dim--
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."


LIFE'S MIRROR by Mary Ainge De Vere

There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true;
Then give to the world the best you have
And the best will come back to you.
Give love and love to your life will flow,
A strength in your utmost need;
Have faith, and a score of hearts will show
Their faith in your word and deed.
Give truth, and your gift will be paid in kind,
And honor will honor meet
And a smile that is sweet will surely find
A smile that is just as sweet.
Give sorrow and pity to those who mourn
You will gather in flowers again
The scattered seeds of your thoughts outborne,
Though the sowing seem but vain.
For life is the mirror, of king and slave --
'Tis just what we are and do,
Then give to the world the best you have
And the best will come back to you.


GOD, MAKE ME A MAN by Harlan G. Metcalf

Give me the strength to stand for right
When other folks have left the fight,
Give me the courage of the man
Who knows that if he will, he can.
Teach me to see in every face
The good, the kind, and not the base.
Make me sincere in word and deed,
Blot out from me all shame and greed,
Help me to guard my troubled soul
By constant, active, self-control.
Clean up my thoughts, my speech, my play,
And keep me pure from day to day.
O, make of me a man!



A LITTLE FELLOW FOLLOWS ME by Lee Fisher

A careful man I want to be,
A little fellow follows me;
I do not dare to go astray,
For fear he'll go the self-same way,

I cannot once escape his eyes,
Whate'er he sees me do he tries;
Like me he says he's going to be,
The little chap who follows me.

He thinks that I am good and fine,
Believes in every word of mine;
The base in me he must not see,
The little chap who follows me.

I must remember as I go,
Through summer's sun and winter's snow;
I am building for the years to be
That little chap who follows me.


A LEADER from Witter Brynner's translation
of Laotzu's Book of Toa, written 600 BC

A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists,
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
Worst when they despise him.
"Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you,"
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When work is done, his aim fulfilled.
They will all say, "We did this ourselves."



OVER THE PLATE by Grantland Rice

It counts not what you have my friend
When the story is told at the game's far end;
The greatest brawn and the greatest brain
The world has known may be yours in vain.
The man with control is the one who mounts,
And it's how you use what you've got that counts.
Have you got the bead? Are you aiming straight?
How much of your effort goes over the plate?


LIFE SCULPTOR by George W. Doane

Chisel in hand stood a sculptor boy
With a marble block before him.
His face lit up with a smile of joy
As an angel dream passed o'er him.
He carved that dream on the yielding stone
With many a sharp incision.
In heaven's own light the image shone, --
He had caught that angel vision.

Sculptors of life are we as we stand
With our lives uncarved before us.
Waiting the hour when at God's command
Our life dream passes o'er us.
Let us carve that dream on the yielding stone
With many a sharp incision --
Its heavenly beauty shall be our own,
Our lives that angel's vision.


STICK TO IT by Rulon B. Stanfield

It matters not if you try and fail,
And fail, and try again;
But it matters much if you try and fail,
And fail to try again.


THE CAMPFIE by R.L. Stevenson

Did you ever watch the campfire
When the moon has fallen low,
And the ashes start to whiten
'Round the embers' crimson glow,
When the night sounds all around you
Making silence doubly sweet,
And a full moon high above you
That the spell may be complete?
Tell me, were you ever nearer
To the land of heart's desire,
Than when you sat there thinking
With your face turned toward the fire?


PRAYER OF THE SPORTSMAN by Brayley

Dear Lord, in the battle that goes on through life,
I ask but a field that is fair;
A chance that is equal with all in the strife,
A courage to strive and to dare.
If I should win, let it be by the code
With my faith and my honor held high,
If I should lose, let me stand by the road
And cheer as the winners go by.


MAGIC ROPE by David H. McKenzie

I picked some scraps of rope apart
To see how they were made.
Most of it was twisted hemp
Yet some was cotton braid.

And from the stuff I played with
I thought aloud: "Rope size runs
To hawsers that hold battleships
of fifty thousand tons."

But there's another kind of rope
Not made by a machine
Stronger than the best steel cable.
Yet so fine it can't be seen.

I'm not talking of the kind of rope
That anybody buys
But the magic line of friendship
That holds two friendly guys.

I learned a lot of things at camp
But the best trick that I got
Was to take that line of friendship
And tie the proper knot.


THE KNIGHT OF TODAY by Walter MacPeek

I envy not the Knight of old
Who lived for honor true,
Who rode away to distant lands
His Great Good Turn to do.

I envy not the soldiers brave
Who kept our country free.
For chances here will prove my strength,
They ever challenge me.

I shall not long for days gone by,
My chance to serve is here.
And with my motto "Be Prepared"
My duties written clear.


MASTERPIECE by Unknown

If this my masterpiece can be,
A verse that all the world shall see;
Thoughts so clear and strong and right
To give my fellows new insight
In problems, purposes, and hopes,
To help the stumbling man who gropes,
I then can feel some value wrought,
I shall not have lived my years for naught.

Then comes a little tousled head,
Just freshly roused from sleep and bed.
He wants to climb upon my knee,
A host of trinkets show to me.
He wants to pat my thinning hair
And move me over in my chair.
He wants to draw his daddy near,
And hold his watch up to his ear.

"No masterpiece tonight," I say,
And lay my manuscript away.
No verse to guide men's stumbing feet,
No phrase to stay men from retreat.
"No masterpiece in words," I say,
But aiding in his simple play,
Responding as he romps with me,
His life a masterpiece shall be.


STIMULUS by Walter MacPeek

It's the grain of sand in the oyster
That starts the pearl to grow,
And without the irritation
The gem we'd never know.

The sand is the oyster's problem,
Making the bivalve fight.
Always and ever it drives him
Toward the "exactly right."

So the oyster keeps on struggling
Inside his kingdom dark,
And soon or late will triumph
If he is ever to reach his mark.

Yet lacking the lowly spec
To heckle and goad him on,
The oyster grows old and tired
With all life's chances gone.

Oh, lucky the man or the oyster
Though he fight and curse the sand,
Who garners his strength till he triumphs
When destiny deals him his hand.