mother called him “a foolish boy,” to risk his limbs and life again on the tree; but his admirers have ever loved to rehearse the deed, as proof of the boy’s invincible, reliant spirit. No one who reads of Carey’s immense labours for the heathen, his fearlessness in great danger, his hair-breadth escapes from death, his tact and coolness in every emergency, can fail to see that his “foolish” act of climbing the tree was a good illustration of the maxim, that “The boy is father of the man.”

James was not egotistical or self-confident; these are no part of self-reliance. Nor was he proud; pride is no part of self-reliance. He was not conscious of having anything to be proud of. No boy was ever more simple-hearted and confiding in others than was he. He did not tell his mother that he could run the farm because he overrated his abilities; it was the honest expression of what he was willing to do, and what he thought he could do. It was the opposite of that inefficient, irresolute boyhood that exclaims, “I can’t,” when it ought to be ashamed to say it; and when a decided, hearty “I can,” would prove a trumpet- call to duty, rallying all the powers to instant action. This was one thing that encouraged his mother to expect so much of him when he should become a man. On one occasion, after he began to labour on the farm, and quite a task was before him, she said to him:

“James, half the battle is in thinking you can do a thing. My father used to say, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way’; repeating a proverb that is as old as the hills.”

“What does that mean?” interrupted James, referring to the proverb.

“It means, that he who wills to do anything will do it. That is, the boy who relies upon himself, and deter mines to perform a task in spite of difficulties, will accomplish his purpose. You can do that?” And his mother waited for a reply.

“I can,” James answered, with emphasis.

“Depend upon yourself. Feel that you are equal to the work in hand, and it will be easily done. ‘God helps those who help themselves,’ it is said, and I believe it. He has helped me wonderfully since your father died. I scarcely knew which way to turn when he died; I scarcely saw how I could live here in the woods; and yet I could find no way to get out of them and live. But just as soon as I fell back upon God and myself, I took up the cross, and bore it easily. We have fared much better than I expected; and it is because I was made to feel that ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ God will bless all our efforts to do the best we can.”

“What’ll He do when we don’t do the best we can?” inquired James.

“He will withhold His blessing; and that is the greatest calamity that could possibly happen to us. We can do nothing well without His blessing.”

“I thought God only helped people to be good,” remarked James, who was beginning to inquire within himself whether He helped farmers.

“God helps folks to be good in everything—good boys, good men, good workers, good thinkers, good farmers, good teachers, good everything. And without His help we can be good in nothing.”

James drank in every word, and looked very much as if he believed that he and God could run the farm successfully. His mother continued:

“If you do one thing well you will do another well, and so on to the end. You will soon learn that your own efforts are necessary to accomplish anything, and so you will form the habit of depending upon yourself— the only way to make the most of yourself.”

Such was the instruction that James received from the wisest of mothers, just when such lessons respecting self-reliance would do him the most good. It was on this line that he was started off in his boyhood,