NERVE.

WHAT is nerve? Nerve is that which enables a person to hang on and die in the last ditch or win out. It is undertaking more than ordinary things; it is taking big risks on one's own ability; it is holding the fort against all-comers. It is doing the thing which the ordinary person thinks is impossible. It is setting your standard twice as high as your business associates would set it for you, and then reaching it. It is burning your bridges behind you and staking your all on your own endeavor. It is taking chances that are not chances to ordinary people the risk would be enormous, but the man of nerve is not even taking chances because he knows he can carry the thing through and doesn't allow himself to become side-tracked, or even annoyed by the people who say it can't be done.

Nerve consists not only in undertaking a hard task, but in everlastingly and unflinchingly standing by your business when your friends have given up in despair. That is the truest

test of nerve. It is nerve that gives us our steamboats and Atlantic cables. It is nerve that belts our continents with railroads and enables men to build up enterprises that astonish the world. Nerve is that which enables one to calmly and unflinchingly face an unpleasant task or a seemingly unendurable condition, when duty requires it.

MAKE THE MOST OF IT.

"He must have some object in it; he must think he can make some money out of your business," was the reply I got from a man on the train last week, when I told him how very cordially and generously myself and party had been entertained by a certain business man upon whom we had called. How unjust, how uncharitable, how untrue, and after all, how useless and unfortunate is such a remark. It makes one wrinkle up his chin, and almost wish he had kept his appreciation to himself. By this man whom we visited, we were treated royally, not because he expected something in return; not at all. He did it because he is a royal man and could not do any other way, and be natural. We must not think when a man walks out with us to the corner to show us the way, that he has an axe to grind. To accuse him of a selfish object may not do him any harm, but it takes all the sweet out of our own lives. It's putting frowns where there should be smiles;

it's making our lives less noble, less beautiful, and less satisfactory than they should be. Better be suspicious that a man has too much heart, than that he has not enough. When you are down, make the most of it; but life is not a teeter-board-you can go up without causing anyone to go down. To be constantly accusing people of irregularities, is to bring reproach upon ourselves. Neither is it a good practice for one to assume that people won't trust him. In making a practice of assuming the motives of others to be selfish, we imply a lack of generosity in ourselves.

Don't jump to the conclusion that people are trying to beat you. It is all right to be businesslike; you must be. It is all wrong to be unbusinesslike. It is all wrong to tie your business up in such a way that you have to depend either upon the honesty or the judgment of someone else to enable you to succeed in fulfilling your promises. Suspicion is an entirely different thing. The very first symptom of dishonesty in yourself is to begin to think that someone else is trying to take advantage of you. The man may have made a mistake. It is always wise to make the best of it, and assume that he