And by these tokens your father is a man, and a whole lot of a man at that.

You will realize how much of a man he is if you will think what you would be up against if you had to support yourself, and then another person more expensive than yourself, and in addition several other persons more expensive than yourself—­not only support them, but supply their whims and humor their caprices; for it must be said of us Americans that we really do not need more than half what we think we positively must have.

Think, I say, young man, of having to do all that, and having to keep on doing it to-day and to-morrow, this month and next month, and all year and every year as long as you live.  If, in your mind, you feel yourself equal to that, tell me, do you not feel in your mind that you have in you the makings of a man indeed—­a tremendous man?

Very well.  That is what your father not only imagines, but does.  So he is decidedly entitled to your respect.  You owe him gratitude, too, of a very definite, tangible kind—­the sort of gratitude you can weigh in scales and count up in cash-book.

Now we come to the point of definite benefit for you in all of this; for, mind you, this paper is for your own selfish interests.  Even when I am advising the beatitudes of life, I am doing it from the view-point of your practical well-being.

Think, then, of the incalculable advantage of having at your beck and call a friend who has proved that he knows the highways and byways of the world by having successfully found his way around among them.

Think of the value of having such a guide for your daily counselor.  Think of how the worth of such a man’s directions to you is multiplied infinitely by the fact that he cares more for your success than for any other one thing in the world.  When you have thought over all these things, you will begin to have some faint understanding not only of what you owe your father, but of his practical helpfulness to you.

A father is an opportunity—­a young man’s first opportunity in life, and the greatest opportunity he will ever have.  That father has made lots of mistakes, no doubt; but you will never make the mistakes he made if you will listen to him.  He has made many successes, perhaps; but his successes are only the acorns to the oaks of your deeds, if you will but take his words as seed for your future enterprises.

And let me tell you this:  Nothing makes a better impression upon the world that is watching you—­watching you very cunningly, young man—­as to be on good terms with your father.  I have known more than one young man to be discredited in business because it was generally understood that he “could not get along with the old man.”

You see, the world thinks that it is the boy’s fault when there is friction between father and son—­and ordinarily the world is right.  Sometimes, of course, the world itself “cannot get along with father”; in such cases it does not blame the son for not getting along with him either.  But that is not your situation, you who read this paper.