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INSPIRATIONAL PAGES
MAN'S BEST FRIEND
One day in the early 1800's, a lonesome farm boy found a little stray dog with a broken leg. He took it home and mended it with bandages, splints and love. The boy was not good looking, didn't have many friends and was primarily interested in books and thinking. He felt the puppy understood him and they became inseparable companions. You would never find one without the other.
One day the boy and his dog went hunting. They happily ran off together into the woods. When they didn't return by nightfall, the boy's mother began to worry.
The next morning she called on the neighbors for help. Search parties were organized and roamed all through the hills. It was wild country and it all seemed hopeless.
But then one of the search parties heard the frantic barking of a dog. They traced it and found the little mongrel barking the mouth of a small cave where a large boulder had slipped across the opening... trapping the boy inside. He was unharmed, but if it hadn't been for the help of that dog... the boy certainly would have died there.
Interesting, isn't it, how often a good turn returns. Cast your bread on the water and it always comes back... usually with butter and jam on it.
One more thing. The dog's name... we'll never know. The boy's name... we'll never forget. Our sixteenth President... Abraham Lincoln.
SOMETHING TO REMEMBER
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot further brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
-Abraham Lincoln
