Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

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Young Knights of the Empire

32 of 87

For thirteen _years_ he stuck to his job in that awful country and then his employers saw that he was so strong on doing his duty that they promoted him to higher and more important work, till in the end he became Chief Factor or Head Manager of the Company. Then came the idea of making the Canadian Pacific Railway right across Canada. People said it was a mad scheme; that it could never pay to make a railway into that vast wilderness which in those days had not been properly explored. But Donald Smith looked far ahead, and saw the time when Britain would be overcrowded with people, and corn-growing, cattle-raising land would be needed for colonists. So he put his savings into the railway and worked hard to make it a success. Everything seemed to go against it. But he _stuck to it_, and fought against all difficulties, until in the end he _came_ out successful. And to-day the Canadian Pacific is one of the greatest railways in the world, and has opened up Canada to be a great country, peopled by thousands of British colonists. And so he made his fortune, and later on, in return for his splendid work for the Empire, he was made Lord Strathcona. Most men leave off work when they are between sixty and seventy, but Lord Strathcona did not. He still continued to _stick to it_ for twenty or thirty years longer than most men. Only a few days before his death he was at work in his office (and he died at the age of ninety-four). And in his office every day he _stuck to it_, for he went there about eleven in the morning, but seldom left before seven--often he was there till nine. When all the neighbouring offices in Victoria Street had turned off their lights and closed their doors for the night, Lord Strathcona's window was to be seen still brilliantly lit up, so much so that the policemen and others about there called it "The Lighthouse." Now, why should a man go on working overtime like that? He was not making money; he had enough of that and to spare. It was simply because he considered it was his duty, and he _stuck to it_. Besides his adventures in Canada, and besides his power of sticking to his duty, Lord Strathcona was also a good scout, because he was kind and helpful to others. * * * * * MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING. For the South African War he paid the expenses of raising a regiment to fight for the King--and a fine regiment it was, too--of mounted men, which was called after him "Strathcona's Horse." Also the Boy Scouts owe him a debt of gratitude, because in the early days of the movement, when we were struggling to get along, he gave 500 Pounds to me to help to start our brotherhood. So Boy Scouts owe much to Lord Strathcona for that, and for setting a real living example of how a man should _stick to it_ in doing his duty, and in being kind and helpful to others. From these stories of poor boys who have made successes of their lives and become rich men I do not want you to think that I look upon money as the aim of your life. You should only wish to gain sufficient money to put you in a position where you can live happily into old age if necessary, and bring up a family without calling on other people to support you. And I would tell you just one more story of a poor man who yet made a fortune other than that which money produced. This man was John Pounds, and he kept a little cobbler's shop in Portsmouth, where he worked hard and well, so that people began to bring their boots to him for repair in preference to any other cobbler, because they knew that he did honest work and they got a better return for their money. Soon he began to gather in much more cash than was necessary for his modest wants. But he did not buy a big house and set himself up in comfort. He did a better thing than that. When he was at his work, idle boys used to come and hang around his shop watching him busily employed, and while he stitched and cobbled he chatted with the boys and took an interest in them. Boys are good fellows, and when they found somebody thought about them, although they were dirty, ragged urchins, they took an interest in him, until gradually they came at their own desire to hear him

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