Try

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

I recommend it to grown-up people who are down in the mouth, and fancy that the best thing they can do is to give up. Nobody knows what he can do till he tries. Can’t do it stays stuck in the mud but Try soon drags the wagon out of the rut. The bees said Try and turned flowers into honey. The squirrel said Try, and up he went to the top of the beech tree. The snowdrop said Try and bloomed in the cold snows of winter. The sun said Try, and spring soon threw Jack Frost out the door. The young lark said Try, and he found that his new wings took him over hedges and ditches, and up where his father was singing. The ox said Try and ploughed the field from end to end. No hill too steep to climb, no clay too stiff to plough, no field too wet to drain, no hole too big to mend, only Try!

Many strokes, with a little axe, hew down and fell the hardest oak.

Great canals were dug a spade full at a time.

The stone is hard, and the drop is small, a hole is made by the constant fall.

Ploughmen have become gentlemen, cobblers have turned their lap stones into gold, and tailors have sprouted into Members of Parliament. Roll up your shirtsleeves, young hopeful, and go to it. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

The sun shines for all the world. Believe in God, and stick to hard work, and see if the mountains are not removed. God helps those who help themselves, He helps them use their God given gifts. The best luck in all the world is made up of elbow grease and sticking plaster. Don’t wait for helpers. Try those two old friends, your strong arms. Self’s the man. If the fox wants poultry for his cubs, he must carry the chickens home himself. Money you earn yourself is much brighter and sweeter than any you get out of dead men’s bags. A scant breakfast in the morning of life whets the appetite for a feast later in the day.

He who has tasted a sour apple will relish a sweet one even more.

As for the place you are cast in, don’t find fault with that. You need not be a horse because you were born in a stable. A hard-working young man, with his wits about him, will make money where others do nothing but lose it. Laziness waits till the river is dry and never gets to market; “Try” swims it and makes all the trade. The dog in the kennel barks at the fleas; the hunting dog does not even know they are there.

Everybody who does not win, blames it on the competition. A mouse may find a hole, be the room even so full of cats. Some hens scratch all the better for having a great swarm of chicks. Don’t hold back because you cannot preach in St. Paul’s Cathedral; be content to talk to one or two in a cottage; very good wheat grows in little fields.

You may cook good food in small pots as well as in big ones. Little pigeons can carry great messages. Even a little dog can bark at a thief and wake up the master and save the house. A spark is also a fire. A sentence of truth has heaven in it. Do what you do right thoroughly, pray over it heartily, and leave the result to God. They who sleep when it is time to plough, will weep when harvest comes.

Pray and Work!