The University of Hard Knocks | Page 8

flypaper shows me up
better than anything at home. What a fine place to skate. Just see how
close I can fly over it and not get stuck a bit. Mother is such a silly old
worryer. She means all right, of course, but she isn't up-to-date. We

young set of modern flies are naturally bright and have so many more
advantages. You can't catch us. They were too strict with me back
home."
You see Johnny fly back and forth and have the time of his naturally
bright young life. Afterwhile, tho, he stubs his toe and lands in the
stickiness. "Well, well, how nice this is on the feet, so soft and
soothing!"
First he puts one foot down and pulls it out. That is a lot of fun. It
shows he is not a prisoner. He is a strong-minded fly. He can quit it or
play in it, just as he pleases. After while he puts two feet down in the
stickiness. It is harder to pull them out. Then he puts three down and
puts down a few more trying to pull them out.
"Really," says Johnny Fly bowing to his comrades also stuck around
him, "really, boys, you'll have to excuse me now. Good-bye!" But he
doesn't pull loose. He feels tired and he sits down in the sticky flypaper.
It is a fine place to stick around. All his young set of flies are around
him. He does like the company. They all feel the same way--they can
play in the sticky flypaper or let it alone, just as they please, for they
are strong-minded flies. They have another drink and sing, "We won't
go home till morning."
Johnny may get home, but he will leave a wing or a leg. Most of them
stay. They just settle down into the stickiness with sleeping sickness.
The tuition in The College of Needless Knocks is very high indeed!

"Removed" or "Knocked Out"?
The man who goes to jail ought to congratulate himself if he is guilty.
It is the man who does not get discovered who is to be pitied, for he
must get some more knocks.
The world loves to write resolutions of respect. How often we write,
"Whereas, it has pleased an all-wise Providence to remove," when we
might reasonably ask whether the victim was "removed" or merely
"knocked out."
There is a good deal of suicide charged up to Providence.

Chapter III

The College of Needful Knocks
The Bumps That Bump Into Us
BUT occasionally all of us get bumps that we do not bump into. They
bump into us. They are the guideboard knocks that point us to the
higher pathway.
You were bumped yesterday or years ago. Maybe the wound has not
yet healed. Maybe you think it never will heal. You wondered why you
were bumped. Some of you in this audience are just now wondering
why.
You were doing right--doing just the best you knew how--and yet some
blow came crushing upon you and gave you cruel pain.
It broke your heart. You have had your heart broken. I have had my
heart broken more times than I care to talk about now. Your home was
darkened, your plans were wrecked, you thought you had nothing more
to live for.
I am like you. I have had more trouble than anybody else. I have never
known anyone who had not had more trouble than anyone else.
But I am discovering that life only gets good after we have been killed
a few times. Each death is a larger birth.
We all must learn, if we have not already learned, that these blows are
lessons in The College of Needful Knocks. They point upward to a
higher path than we have been traveling.
In other words, we are raw material. You know what raw material
is--material that needs more Needful Knocks to make it more useful
and valuable.
The clothing we wear, the food we eat, the house we live in, all have to
have the Needful Knocks to become useful. And so does humanity
need the same preparation for greater usefulness.

I should like to know every person in this audience. But the ones I
should most appreciate knowing are the ones who have known the most
of these knocks--who have faced the great crises of life and have been
tried in the crucibles of affliction. For I am learning that these lives are
the gold tried in the fire.

The Sorrows of the Piano
See the piano on this stage? Good evening, Mr. Piano. I am glad to see
you. You are so shiny, beautiful, valuable and full of music, if properly
treated.
Do you know how you got upon this stage, Mr. Piano? You were
bumped