Some of Several Epistles

Am I still trying to discourage you? I suppose that I am, for, you see,
_I_ can look back along that road which lies _before_ you, and I can
remember the rocks I had to climb over, and the bushes I had to struggle
through, and yet I know that it was far easier for me than it will be
for you.

You have read parables in the Bible. Well, I am preaching a modern
parable. "Book learning" is a sword and buckler--or perhaps it would be
better to say that it is a suit of strong hunting clothes and thick
leather knee-boots, and I was pretty well clad like that when I started
my trip, while you are dressed only in thin gingham, with your legs and
feet bare--as I first saw you. Please shut your eyes, dear child, and
try to see the parable picture I have drawn for you.

Have you done it? The picture is not as pretty as the one I painted the
night I told about how fine it was to be a nurse, is it? But it is more
nearly true to life.

Now, think hard before you make up your mind as to whether or not you
really mean to go ahead, for--after all, little Smiles--each boy and
girl has soon to decide, all alone, what he or she is going to do with
that strange thing which we call life.