Good friends. Over the years, they have com

forted you, irked you and, more than a fen

times, saved vour skin. They are the friends vow

nave known for vears but still can t wait to see

next week for lunch. Loyal and lasting, these

ends have stood by you in good and bad, like

a pair of boots that have worn Well. They are

the people you wouldn t trade for anything--

and ifvou didn t havc thcm, you d trade almost

everything to get them. The world is a wilder

hess without good friends

fhe young Persian soldier must have felt this

acutely when he was asked by his ldng, Cyrus

the Great, whether he would trade the horse

on which he had just won a race for an entire

kingdom. "Certainly not, Sire," the young