They sometimes waste in idleness the hours they ought to spend in diligent study and helpful reading.

They might, if they would, fit themselves for high and honorable places in after years; but they let the days pass with their opportunities.

By and by they hear the school door shut.

Then, all through their years they move with halting step, with dwarfed life, with powers undeveloped, unable to accept the higher places that might have been theirs if they had been prepared for them, failing often in duties and responsibilities--all because in youth they wasted their school-days and did not seize the opportunities that then came to them for preparation.

Napoleon, when visiting his old school, said to the pupils, "Boys, remember that every hour wasted at school means a chance of misfortune in future life." Thousands of failures along the years of manhood and womanhood attest the truth of this monition.
Friendship is another opportunity that offers great blessing.