Our town and civic duty

Chapter 51: DRIVE THE NAIL ARIGHT

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Children & Young Adult Reading Teaching & Education

About This Book

A school reader for elementary pupils offers short stories, adapted tales, and practical lessons that introduce civic virtues such as courage, self-control, thrift, perseverance, kindness to animals, and patriotism. It then profiles public servants—police, mail carriers, firemen, street cleaners, and sanitation workers—to illustrate dependence, interdependence, and community cooperation. Subsequent sections address personal and public safety, sanitation, and insect control, and conclude with guidance on Junior Red Cross activities and patriotic service. Teacher notes recommend dramatization, discussion, and hands-on projects to connect classroom learning with daily civic habits and to encourage respect for public institutions and duties.

DRIVE THE NAIL ARIGHT

Drive the nail aright, boys;

Hit it on the head;

Strike with all your might, boys,

Ere the time has fled.

Lessons you’ve to learn, boys;

Study with a will:

They who reach the top, boys,

First must climb the hill.

Standing at the foot, boys,

Gazing at the sky;

How can you get up, boys,

If you never try?

Though you stumble oft, boys,

Never be downcast;

Try and try again, boys:

You’ll succeed at last.

Always persevere, boys,

Though your task is hard;

Toil and happy trust, boys,

Bring their own reward.

Never give it up, boys,

Always say you’ll try;

You will gain the top, boys,

Surely, by and by.

—Selected.