Many a great
man who is alive to-day began as a poor boy like yourself, with no
help besides his own wits and pluck."
Then I told him about Sir William Arrol. At nine years of age he went
to work as a "piecer" in a cotton factory. A few years later he became
apprenticed to a blacksmith. He worked hard and well, and was very
steady, so that at the age of twenty-three he found himself foreman in
Messrs. Laidlaw's boiler works in Glasgow. Like a Scout, he was
thrifty, and in five years of this employment he saved up 85 Pounds of his
wages, and with this sum he started a business of his own.
At first he made boilers and girders, and then, as his business grew
bigger, he took up bridge-building.
Steadily he worked at this, being at all times anxious to show good
solid work, without any scamping.
To start with he had met with disappointments and failures, but he
would not give in to then; when things looked their worst he kept a
smiling face and _stuck to it_.
And in the end he came out successful, as every man does who is
patient and sticks it out.
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