IF you have made some costly break, don't demonstrate your streak of yellow, by saying, "'Twasn't my mistake—the blame rests on the other fellow." Far manlier it is to say, "I am the author of that blunder, and if you do not like my way, just soak your head and go to thunder." George Washington chopped down a tree, for which he doubtless knew he'd catch it. His father said to him, said he, "Who did this with his little hatchet?" If George had been a tin-horn sport, he would have said, "That Johnson laddie cut down your prune tree good and short, so go and take his hide off, daddy." But George was not a ten-cent youth; in him there was no streak of yellow; when he did wrong he told the truth, nor blamed things on the other fellow. So he said, "Dad, if you must be worked up about so small a trifle, why, I cut down your measly tree—I did it with my flobert rifle." That spirit is as good as gold, though found in low or lofty station, and with it you will always hold the world's respect and admiration. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ISOLATION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE HOUSEKEEPER by ROBERT FROST DON JUAN: CANTO 1 by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE BIRD OF PARADISE by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES FRIENDSHIP by RALPH WALDO EMERSON MITHRIDATES by RALPH WALDO EMERSON ON THE MEMORABLE VICTORY OF PAUL JONES by PHILIP FRENEAU |