DECEMBER 30: Ambitions
“Do you know what ambition means?” asked daddy. “I think it means to want to get on,” said Jack. “Isn’t there a word called ambitious? And when a person is spoken of as ambitious it means that person wants to get on and improve and all.”
“Right,” said daddy. “That’s fine. That saves me all the trouble of explaining, too.”
“It was nearing the New Year,” daddy said, “and Billie Brownie wasgoing around calling one evening. The Dreamland King promised to help him. So he called on a little boy.
“‘How are you this fine evening?’ Billie Brownie asked the little boy, whose name, by the way, was Jasper.
“‘I am thinking of what I am going to do when I am big,’ said Jasper. ‘I have great ambitions.’
“‘Gracious,’ said Billie Brownie, ‘that does sound noble.’
“‘Would you like to hear them?’ asked Jasper.
“‘Enormously,’ said Billie Brownie.
“‘Well,’ said Jasper, ‘when I grow up I want to be very famous. I want to be praised more than anything. Oh, Billie Brownie, I want to write great stories and books and have every one say that I’m greater than Shakespeare. I want to write great plays and have audiences rise to their feet and cheer and cheer. I want to play in concerts and have signs go up which say that all the seats are sold and that there is only standing room.
“‘I want to be so popular that I’ll never have to pay for anything, but others will always be honored to treat me. I want some day to make a great speech and have the policemen called out to keep back the crowds who would hear me. I would like to be a great singer and have crowds stand in the rain waiting in line to get tickets. And I’d like to be a tight-rope walker in a circus and have people admire me.
“‘I’d like to have long hair and have folks think me clever without having to say a word. I’d like to own a big automobile and I’d like to act in a show where all I’d have to do would be to smile and folks would think me grand.’
“‘Well, well,’ said Billie Brownie. ‘Anything else?’
“‘Yes,’ said Jasper, ‘I’d like to make a great deal of money and have a fine job and not have to work at all.’
“‘In fact,’ said Billie Brownie, ‘you’d like to be famous and rich and admired without doing a thing yourself! Well, well, Jasper, your ideas are all mixed up. You haven’t ambitions. You’re just greedy, I fear. And if I were you, I’d think a while and make a New Year’s resolution that I’d be good and kind and work hard and make myself worth while rather than rich. And when you’ve tried what fun it is to work hard and play hard and be kind, you’ll find how happy you are. And happiness is greater than fame. Billie Brownie knows!’”