OF CALIF. LIBRABY, LOS AHGELES
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 The world is so full of a number of things, 
 Tm sure we should all be as happy as kings. 
 
 ROBERT Louis STEVENSON.
 
 THE 
 GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Selected and arranged 
 
 By 
 BLANCHE E. HERBERT 
 
 "A merry heart doetb good like a medicine. 9 
 
 BOSTON 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
 
 Published, November, 1919 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1919, 
 By LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD Co. 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 The Good Cheer Book 
 
 flotwoot) Press 
 
 BERWICK & SMITH CO. 
 
 NORWOOD, MASS. 
 
 U.S. A.
 
 " Let me live in my house by the side of the road 
 And be a friend to man." 
 
 Sam Walter Foil. 
 
 2130256
 
 WHY THE GOOD CHEER BOOK? 
 
 THE greatest war of the ages has passed, 
 leaving in its wake maimed bodies, broken 
 hearts, shattered hopes, unrealized ideals, soul- 
 hunger, and menacing social and economic un- 
 rest. Believing that the dawn of a new and 
 finer social and spiritual day is rising through 
 the fog and mist of the present pain and strug- 
 gle, but that its final advent depends largely 
 upon personal adjustment to the changing 
 conditions of life, I modestly offer The Good 
 Cheer Book as one of the aids in solving the 
 great problems of the future. 
 
 While many of the selections contained in 
 this book are familiar, they impart something 
 of the poise and confidence which one experi- 
 ences when resting beneath the giant Sequoia 
 trees which have reached heavenward for two 
 thousand years or more. Generations have 
 come and gone, and kingdoms have risen and 
 fallen into decay, but still these great trees 
 stand sturdily and peacefully, not as monu- 
 ments in stone to the greatness of man, but as 
 
 7
 
 WHY THE GOOD CHEER BOOK? 
 
 a living promise of something enduring which 
 may be ours. To linger in their sheltering 
 presence and deep shadows, is to hush one's 
 murmurings, and shame into oblivion one's 
 petty desires and ambitions. So is it with 
 many of the thoughts herein expressed. They 
 pulsate with life, and we love them for their 
 strength, beauty, and inspiration ; and we turn 
 to them for rest, healing, and reassurance when 
 we stray from the " Foot-Path to Peace " and 
 forget that there are things which never die. 
 
 Since we do not always realize that the boys 
 and girls of to-day will be the citizens of to- 
 morrow, and that the griefs and disappoint- 
 ments of childhood, before the little ones are 
 able to reason, are just as poignant as their 
 joys are intense, and play an important part 
 in the development of character, I have in- 
 cluded a bit of appreciation and cheer for the 
 children, with confidence that the grown-up 
 children will find suggestion and refreshment 
 in the sweetness and charm of youth. 
 
 There are many people sick people, dis- 
 couraged people, lonely people who need 
 nothing so much as an understanding and sym- 
 pathetic friend to help them to discover them- 
 
 8
 
 WHY THE GOOD CHEER BOOK? 
 
 selves and their power to create their own good 
 cheer. May this little book prove to be such 
 a friend. Phillips Brooks says, " We are 
 haunted by an ideal life ; it is in our blood and 
 will never be still." If The Good Cheer Book 
 assists even one struggling soul to find the trail 
 which leads outward and upward into the sun- 
 light of his ideal, I shall feel richly rewarded. 
 BLANCHE E. HERBERT.
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 ANY anthology is necessarily an extended 
 borrowing of the thoughts and expressions of 
 others. The excuse, not to say justification, 
 is that each act of borrowing is a tribute of 
 praise, rendered in the hope of making the 
 prized selections helpful to a still larger num- 
 ber. 
 
 Careful effort has been made to communi- 
 cate with authors or those empowered to pro- 
 tect their work, and if any have been over- 
 looked who should have been consulted, it is 
 hoped that the grateful general acknowledg- 
 ment here made will be accepted as satis- 
 factory. Thanks are due each of the following 
 for special permission to use the selections 
 indicated, all rights in which are in each case 
 reserved by the owner of the copyright: 
 
 Mme. Clara Gabrilowitsch for her very gracious 
 permission to use a long selection from the works of 
 her father, "Mark Twain." 
 
 T. A. Daly and David McKay: "Da Colda Feet," 
 from "Madrigali." 
 
 xz
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 Richard Le Gallienne: 'A Child's Evensong." 
 
 Edwin Markham: "The Day and the Work," from 
 his forthcoming volume "New Poems." 
 
 Dr. Frank Crane and TJie American Magazine. 
 
 Helen Keller : Three extracts from an interview by 
 Edward Marshall. 
 
 Edgar A. Guest and the Reilly & Lee Company: 
 ' ' The Out-of -Doors Man, " " Lullaby, " " Tied Down, ' ' 
 "Bud's Views." 
 
 Funk & Wagnalls Company: Extract from "The 
 Sunny Side of the Street," by MarshaU P. Wilder. 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company: "Work," by Alice 
 Gary; a number of selections from the writings of 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson ; an extract from "A Rill from 
 the Town Pump," by Nathaniel Hawthorne; "A Day 
 of Sunshine," "Christmas Bells," "Children," 
 "Maidenhood," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; 
 an extract from "The Vision of Sir Launfal," by 
 James Russell Lowell; extracts from the works of 
 Henry D. Thoreau; extracts from poems by John 
 Greenleaf Whittier. All these selections are used by 
 permission of, and by special arrangement with, 
 Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers. 
 
 C. S. Hammond & Company: "Duties of the 
 Citizen," by Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company: "0 Heart of Mine," 
 "A Life-Lesson," and three short extracts from "The 
 Biographical Edition of the Complete Works of James 
 Whitcomb Riley." 
 
 Ralph Waldo Trine and Dodd, Mead & Company: 
 Extracts from "In Tune with the Infinite." 
 
 Dodd, Mead & Company: Extracts from "The Blue 
 12
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 Bird," and "The Treasure of the Humble," by 
 Maurice Maeterlinck; "Time to Tinker 'Roun'," 
 "Little Brown Baby," "With the Lark," by Paul 
 Laurence Dunbar. 
 
 George H. Doran Company: Extract from "The 
 Human Machine," by Arnold Bennett. 
 
 Little, Brown & Company: Selection from "Nerves 
 and Common Sense," by Annie Payson Call; " One 
 Day at a Time," by Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 W. B. Conkey Company: Extracts from poems by 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 B. W. Huebsch: Extracts from "The New Human- 
 ism," by Edward Howard Griggs. 
 
 Rudyard Kipling and Doubleday, Page & Company : 
 "If." 
 
 Charles Scribner's Sons: "Dreaming of Home," 
 "Child and Mother," "Kissing Time," and selection 
 from another poem by Eugene Field. 
 
 John Kendrick Bangs: "Friends and Brothers." 
 
 Southern Press Syndicate: Selections from poems 
 by the "Bentztown Bard." 
 
 Charlotte Perkins Gilman: "Recreation and Re- 
 solve."
 
 " I want the book that truly tries 
 A happy, hopeful help to be ; 
 That is the book that takes the prize ! 
 The cheerful book's the book for me."
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 VAGI 
 
 PART I 
 THE DIAGNOSIS 17 
 
 PART II 
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE . 31 
 
 PART III 
 
 WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS . . 61 
 
 Happiness 63 
 
 Efficiency 79 
 
 Civic Welfare 97 
 
 PART IV 
 
 TONICS FOR THE CHEERFUL LlFE . . . IOQ, 
 
 I will talk Health instead of sickness . .ill 
 I will talk Prosperity instead of failure . 123 
 I will carry Good News instead of bad news 145 
 I will tell the Cheerful Tale instead of the 
 
 sad tale . . . il^L. r . .153 
 I will mention my Blessings instead of my 
 
 burdens 165 
 
 '5
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I will speak of the Sunshine of yesterday 
 and to-morrow instead of the clouds of 
 
 to-day 223 
 
 I will Encourage instead of criticise . .235 
 I will be a Friend to every one . . .259 
 
 PART V 
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE . 269 
 
 PART VI 
 
 " IT Is BETTER TO TRAVEL HOPEFULLY THAN TO 
 ARRIVE" .... . . . 329 
 
 16
 
 PARTI 
 THE DIAGNOSIS 
 
 1 A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance ; 
 But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken."
 
 THE DIAGNOSIS 
 
 ABE you enjoying life? Do you feel a 
 certain kind of expectancy and glad looking 
 forward when you awake in the morning as 
 to what the events of the day may bring to 
 you? Or is it with an uneasy, disappointed, 
 and somewhat guilty feeling that you find 
 yourself when consciousness returns? Have 
 you come to feel how insincere and degen- 
 erate all the people around you have become, 
 and how few people can really be trusted in 
 the world to-day, and how little true religion 
 there is, and what a hard time you have had, 
 harder than any one else? Then there is 
 something wrong with you. Not with life, 
 nor with your fate or lot, but simply with you, 
 with your own character. As the mother told 
 her boy, you are one of the uninteresting good 
 people who have lost their interest in the prob- 
 lems of life, and so have become uninteresting. 
 
 John Edgar Park. 
 19
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 When one passes in review the individual 
 causes that disturb and complicate our social 
 life, by whatever names they are designated, 
 and their list would be long, they all lead back 
 to one general cause, which is this: the confu- 
 sion of the secondary with the essential. Ma- 
 terial comfort, education, liberty, the whole of 
 civilization these things constitute the frame 
 of the picture; but the frame no more makes 
 the picture than the frock the monk or the 
 uniform the soldier. Here the picture is man, 
 and man with his most intimate possessions 
 namely, his conscience, his character and his 
 will. And while we have been elaborating and 
 garnishing the frame, we have forgotten, 
 neglected, disfigured the picture. Thus are we 
 loaded with external good, and miserable in 
 spiritual life ; we have in abundance that which, 
 if must be, we can go without, and are infinitely 
 poor in the one thing needful. And when the 
 depth of our being is stirred, with its need of 
 loving, aspiring, fulfilling its destiny, it feels 
 the anguish of one buried alive is smothered 
 under the mass of secondary things that weigh 
 it down and deprive it of light and air. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 20
 
 THE DIAGNOSIS 
 
 The world is too much with us ; late and soon, 
 Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers : 
 Little we see in Nature that is ours; 
 We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! 
 This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon ; 
 The winds that will be howling at all hours, 
 And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; 
 For this, for every thing, we are out of tune ; 
 It moves us not. Great God ! I'd rather be 
 A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 
 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 
 Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 ARE YOU GETTING ANYWHERE? 
 
 You are rushing, you are straining, with a grim 
 
 look on your face: 
 You are turning from all pleasures; in your 
 
 breast peace has no place; 
 You have ceased to find contentment in the nooks 
 
 you used to know; 
 You have ceased to care for others whom you 
 
 clung to long ago: 
 You are straining, you are striving through the 
 
 dark days and the fair, 
 But, O mirthless, eager brother, are you getting 
 
 anywhere? 
 
 21
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 In your haste you have forgotten how to linger 
 or to smile 
 
 When a child looks up and greets you or would 
 claim your care a while ; 
 
 Though the wild rose sheds its petals in the 
 lonely pasture still, 
 
 And glad breezes sway the blossoms in the 
 orchard on the hill 
 
 You are too much in a hurry, and too occupied 
 to care, 
 
 But, with all your grim endeavors, are you get- 
 ting anywhere? 
 
 You have fled from sweet contentment; trouble 
 haunts you in your dreams ; 
 
 It is long since you have loitered on the banks of 
 shaded streams 
 
 That go singing to the pebbles they have made 
 so clean and white 
 
 And have polished at their leisure and their 
 pleasure day and night; 
 
 You no longer know the solace that is in a sweet 
 old air, 
 
 But, with all your ceaseless moiling, are you get- 
 ting anywhere? 
 
 You have given up old fancies, you have left old 
 
 friends behind; 
 You are getting rich in pocket, but are poor in 
 
 heart and mind; 
 You have lost your sense of beauty in your haste 
 
 to push ahead, 
 And along the ways you travel bitterness and 
 
 grief are spread; 
 
 22
 
 THE DIAGNOSIS 
 
 You have ceased to care how others bend be- 
 neath the woes they bear, 
 
 But, with all your cruel striving, are you getting 
 anywhere? 
 
 5". . Kiser. 
 
 QUIET WAYS ARE BEST 
 
 What's the use of worrying, 
 Of hurrying, 
 And scurrying, 
 Everybody flurrying, 
 
 And breaking up their rest? 
 When every one is teaching us, 
 Preaching and beseeching us, 
 To settle down and end the fuss, 
 For quiet ways are best. 
 
 The rain that trickles down in showers 
 A blessing brings to thirsty flowers. 
 Sweet fragrance from each brimming cup 
 The gentle zephyrs gather up. 
 There's ruin in the tempest's path; 
 There's ruin in a voice of wrath; 
 
 And they alone are blest 
 Who early learn to dominate 
 Themselves, their violence abate, 
 And prove, by their serene estate, 
 
 That quiet ways are best. ,
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Nothing's gained by worrying, 
 By hurrying, 
 And scurrying; 
 With fretting and with flurrying 
 
 The temper's often lost; 
 And in pursuit of some small prize 
 We rush ahead and are not wise, 
 And find the unwonted exercise 
 A fearful price has cost. 
 
 'Tis better far to join the throng 
 That do their duty right along; 
 Reluctant they to raise a fuss, 
 Or make themselves ridiculous. 
 Calm and serene in heart and nerve, 
 Their strength is always in reserve, 
 
 And nobly stands each test; 
 And every day and all about, 
 By scenes within and scenes without, 
 We can discern, with ne'er a doubt, 
 
 That quiet ways are best. 
 
 The Christian Commonwealth. 
 
 I would give up all the mind 
 In the prim city's hoard can find 
 House with its scrap-art bedight, 
 Straightened manners of the street, 
 Smoothed voiced society 
 If so the swiftness of the wind 
 24
 
 THE DIAGNOSIS 
 
 Might pass into my feet; 
 
 If so the sweetness of the wheat 
 
 Into my soul might pass, 
 
 And the clear courage of the grass; 
 
 If the lark caroled in my song; 
 
 If one tithe of the faithfulness 
 
 Of the bird mother with her brood 
 
 Into my selfish heart might press, 
 
 And make me also instinct good. 
 
 Edward Rowland Sill. 
 
 ALL OF US 
 
 We sit in a little mist of days, 
 
 'Neath the gloom of a cloudy sky, 
 
 And some one whispers and some one prays 
 
 For the shadows to flutter by. 
 
 And we toil and mend and play our part, 
 
 And worry and fret and moan 
 
 And that's because in the human heart 
 
 We think too much of our own. 
 
 We think too much of our own content, 
 
 Of the kind of pleasure that suits; 
 
 Of the kind of weather that's over us bent, 
 
 And our share of life's fruits; 
 
 Of our aches and pains and grief and glee, 
 
 Our comfort and fame and pride 
 
 And the I and the You and the great big Me 
 
 Are the stakes to which we're tied. 
 
 If we were broader, as fellow-men,
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 We'd smile and we'd sing together, 
 Comrades of life in the world again 
 In every condition of weather. 
 And instead of a little mist of days 
 This earth would swim with shining, 
 And lift its voice in a shout of praise 
 Instead of a wail and whining. 
 
 Folger M'Kinsey f 
 
 DAY BY DAY 
 
 Give me my tithe of strength to walk the way; 
 By work, and not by tinkling platitudes; to 
 
 show 
 
 A steadfastness that, growing day by day, 
 Helps others, and the inner-me, to grow; 
 A sturdy will, before my course is run, 
 To see beyond the shadowings, the sun ! 
 
 Who does not sometimes feel life not worth 
 
 while, 
 
 Or curse the fight that wearies brain and soul, 
 Is dead indeed! . . . Those triumph most 
 
 who smile 
 
 When mists of doubt obscure the Final Goal. 
 Then, give us strength, when in the valley's 
 
 gloom, 
 
 To note that on the hills the flowers bloom! 
 26
 
 THE DIAGNOSIS 
 
 Again, and yet again, my work will fail 
 
 To measure to the simple standard set; 
 Despite resolves, the calmest soul must quail 
 And care so little, it grows numb . . . And 
 
 yet 
 Grant me, with other things, one touch of 
 
 mirth 
 
 And I will make my heaven here on earth ! 
 
 Cincinnati Times-Star. 
 
 IN THE CITY PENT 
 
 Oh, sweet at this sweet hour to wander free, 
 Or follow some invisible beckoning hand, 
 Among the moody mountains, where they 
 
 stand 
 Awed with the thought of their own majesty ! 
 
 Sweet, at the folding up of day, to be 
 Where, on the tattered fringes of the land, 
 The uncourted flowers of the penurious sand 
 Are pale against the pale lips of the sea. 
 
 Sweetest to dream, on easeful earth reclined, 
 Far in some forest's ancient idleness, 
 Under the shadow of its bossy boles, 
 
 Beyond the world's pursuit and Care's access, 
 
 And hear the wild feet of the elfin wind, 
 Dancing and prancing in mad caprioles. 
 
 William Watson. 
 27
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 A WOMAN'S WISH 
 
 Would I were lying in a field of clover, 
 Of clover cool and soft, and sweet, 
 
 With dusky clouds in deep skies hanging over, 
 And scented silence at my head and feet. 
 
 Ah! it were sweet, where clover clumps are 
 meeting 
 
 And daisies hiding, so to hide and rest; 
 No sound except my own heart's sturdy beating, 
 
 Rocking itself to sleep within my breast. 
 
 Just to lie there, filled with the deeper breathing 
 That comes of listening to a wild bird's song! 
 
 Our souls require at times this full unsheath- 
 ing 
 All swords will rust if scabbard kept too long. 
 
 And I am tired so tired of rigid duty, 
 So tired of all my tired hands find to do! 
 
 I yearn, I faint, for some of life's free beauty, 
 Its loose beats with no straight string running 
 through ! 
 
 Ay, laugh, if laugh you will at my crude speech, 
 
 But women sometimes die of such a greed, 
 Die for the small joys held beyond their reach, 
 And the assurance they have all they need ! 
 
 Mary Ashley Townsend. 
 28
 
 THE DIAGNOSIS 
 
 Sit down, sad soul, and count 
 
 The moments flying: 
 Come tell the sweet amount 
 
 That's lost by sighing! 
 How many smiles? a score? 
 Then laugh, and count no more, 
 
 For day is dying. 
 
 Lie down, sad soul, and sleep, 
 
 And no more measure 
 The flight of Time, nor weep 
 
 The loss of leisure; 
 But here, by this lone stream, 
 Lie down with us, and dream 
 
 Of starry treasure. 
 
 We dream do thou the same; 
 
 We love forever; 
 We laugh, yet few we shame, 
 
 The gentle, never. 
 Stay, then, till Sorrow dies ; 
 Then hope and happy skies 
 
 Are thine forever. 
 
 Bryan W. Procter. 
 
 GOOD CHEER 
 
 How shall I come to meet you, 
 Dear tenant of my thought? 
 
 I send my song to greet you 
 Lest you be all distraught. 
 29
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Think not if grief is wetting 
 Your lattice bars with rain, 
 
 That I am all forgetting 
 The face behind the pane. 
 
 A full-strung heart shall send you 
 Winged message o'er the miles, 
 
 And sunny skies forefend you 
 Lest you be strange to smiles. 
 
 A bird sings : " Morrow, morrow " 
 
 All in the sweetest way. 
 We shall not rhyme with sorrow 
 
 Forever and a day. 
 
 Up hope and heart of gladness, 
 Good cheer can mend the ill. 
 
 Here's wings to laggard sadness, 
 And welcome, goodly will! 
 
 My four-o'-clocks are climbing 
 Sheer skyward from the sod, 
 
 And all the garden chiming 
 With orisons to God. 
 
 C. H. Crandall. 
 
 " If a man comes not to gather 
 The roses where they stand, 
 They fade among the foliage: 
 They cannot seek his hand." 
 
 Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, 
 Which we ascribe to heaven. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 3
 
 PARTH 
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL 
 LIFE 
 
 Take joy home, 
 
 And make a place in thy heart for her, 
 And give her time to grow, and cherish her ; 
 Then -will she come, and oft will sing to thee, 
 When thou art working in the furrows. 
 
 JEAN INGELOW.
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL 
 LIFE 
 
 LET'S BE HAPPY HERE 
 
 Let's be happy here, lads, and who shall whine or 
 
 care! 
 A hymn is in the morning and the night is sweet 
 
 with prayer! 
 The boughs are full of fruit, men, and life is full 
 
 of sweet; 
 
 In spite of all the heartache, there shall be no 
 defeat! 
 
 There shall be no defeat, lads, 
 
 For in our souls shall rise 
 The light that gives the victory, 
 The hope that paints the skies! 
 
 Let's be happy here, lads, and as things come 
 
 and go, 
 Stand up to face the issue, stand up to face the 
 
 blow! 
 The strife shall end in triumph, the spring shall 
 
 be our own, 
 And we shall tread the world, lads, where winds 
 
 of May are blown! 
 
 33
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Where winds of May in sweetness 
 
 O'er Maryland hills and vales 
 Shall kiss the morns with beauty 
 And fill the white ship-sails! 
 
 Bentztown Bard. 
 Copyrighted by Southern Press Syndicate. 
 
 Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts, 
 bright fancies, faithful sayings; treasure- 
 houses of precious and restful thoughts, which 
 care cannot disturb, nor poverty take away 
 from you, houses built without hands for 
 your souls to live in. 
 
 John Ruskin. 
 
 GOD IS EVERYWHERE 
 
 There is nothing to know but Truth, 
 There is nothing to do but love ; 
 There is no place to go where God is not 
 The wide, wide world is a garden spot 
 Where the flowers of Truth eternally bloom, 
 Where the tares and weeds can find no room, 
 For there is no place where God is not 
 
 Jane Grey Syme. 
 34
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 THE MIRACLE OF MORNING 
 
 I felt the potent pulsing of the dawn, 
 
 The throbbing of the ether fields from far, 
 'Twas the miracle of morning drawing on 
 
 And the fading of the silent silver star; 
 God's morning, swinging down without a jar, 
 
 With a glory on the leafage and the lawn 
 There was just a trace of color in the sky, 
 
 A pinkish scintillation, that was all; 
 But the day had kissed the waning night 
 good-by, 
 
 And the silent world was waking at the call ; 
 The watchful cricket told it to its mate, 
 
 The thrushes heard with rapture on the 
 
 lawn, 
 And every bud and blossom was elate 
 
 With the miracle of morning drawing on. 
 
 Charles D. Lakey. 
 
 NATURE'S SECRET 
 
 I know a green bank where anemones grow 
 
 And daisies and buttercups too; 
 And where the sweet violets open their eyes 
 
 To the color of heaven's own blue. 
 
 The apple trees pink with the blossoms of May 
 
 A fragrance distill on the air, 
 And breezes all gently in passing them by 
 
 Kiss softly their petals so fair. 
 
 35
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Adown through the meadow a river flows by, 
 
 Like a ribbon its pathway is seen, 
 And close to its winding on either green bank 
 
 Are willows of tender-hued green. 
 
 The hills in their new budding verdure look 
 down 
 
 And smile on the valleys below, 
 And the bobolink sings o'er his nest in the grass 
 
 Where cowslips and pimpernels grow. 
 
 O Nature, whose heart-throbs in winter are 
 
 stilled, 
 
 What think you of spring and its bloom? 
 What force has impelled you to clothe the broad 
 
 earth 
 With beauty bright spun from your loom? 
 
 For answer we read from each sweet-scented 
 
 flower, 
 
 And from the wild bird as it sings ; 
 'Tis God in the blossoms, 'tis God in the breeze, 
 Tis God in the heart of all things. 
 
 Josephine Canning. 
 
 FRIENDS AND BROTHERS 
 
 Why folks complain of loneliness 
 Is strange to me, I must confess; 
 Why, every brook, and every tree, 
 And every twinkling star I see, 
 Hath something good to say to me! 
 36
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 If you would find a comradeship 
 
 That through the years will never slip, 
 
 Be friends with all the stars of night, 
 
 Greet all God's creatures with delight 
 
 The breeze that blows, the bird that sings, 
 
 The seas with mystic murmurings. 
 
 The stranger on the highway too 
 
 Is brother unto me and you, 
 
 In that great family a part 
 
 Whose home lies in the human heart! 
 
 John Kendrick Bangs. 
 
 Let me go where'er I will 
 
 I hear a sky-born music still : 
 
 It sounds from all things old, 
 
 It sounds from all things young. 
 
 From all that's fair, from all that's foul, 
 
 Peals out a cheerful song. 
 
 It is not only in the rose, 
 
 It is not only in the bird, 
 
 Not only where the rainbow glows, 
 
 Nor in the song of woman heard, 
 
 But in the darkest, meanest things 
 
 There alway, alway something sings. 
 
 'Tis not in the high stars alone, 
 Nor in the cups of budding flowers, 
 Nor in the red breast's mellow tone, 
 Nor in the bow that smiles in showers, 
 But in the rnud and scum of things 
 There alway, alway something sings. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 37
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Have you found your life distasteful? 
 
 My life did and does smack sweet 
 Was your youth of pleasure wasteful? 
 
 Mine I saved and hold complete. 
 Do your joys with age diminish? 
 
 When mine fail me, I'll complain. 
 Must in death your daylight finish? 
 
 My sun sets to rise again. 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 SELF-DEPENDENCE 
 
 Weary of myself, and sick of asking 
 
 What I am, and what I ought to be, 
 
 At this vessel's prow I stand, which bears me 
 
 Forwards, forwards, o'er the starlit sea. 
 
 And a look of passionate desire 
 
 O'er the sea and to the stars I send : 
 
 " Ye who from my childhood up have calm'd 
 
 me, 
 Calm me, ah, compose me to the end ! 
 
 " Ah," once more, I cried, " ye stars, ye waters, 
 On my heart your mighty charm renew; 
 Still, still let me, as I gaze upon you, 
 Feel my soul becoming vast like you ! " 
 
 From the intense, clear, star-sown vault of 
 
 heaven, 
 
 Over the lit sea's unquiet way, 
 In the rustling night-air came the answer: 
 " Would'st thou be as these are? Live as they. 
 
 38
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 Unaffrighted by the silence round them, 
 
 Undistracted by the sights they see, 
 
 These demand not that the things without 
 
 them 
 Yield them love, amusement, sympathy. 
 
 And with joy the stars perform their shining, 
 And the sea its long moon silver'd roll; 
 For self-poised they live, nor pine with noting 
 All the fever of some differing soul. 
 
 Bounded by themselves, and unregardful 
 In what state God's other works may be, 
 In their own tasks all their powers pouring, 
 These attain the mighty life you see." 
 
 O air-born voice ! long since, severely clear, 
 A cry like thine in mine own heart I hear: 
 Resolve to be thyself; and know, that he 
 Who finds himself, loses his misery ! " 
 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
 'MY HEART LEAPS UP" 
 
 My heart leaps up when I behold 
 
 A rainbow in the sky : 
 So was it when my life began ; 
 So is it now I am a Man ; 
 So be it when I shall grow old, 
 Or let me die ! 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 39
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOR- 
 EVER 
 
 A thing of beauty is a joy forever: 
 
 Its loveliness increases; it will never 
 
 Pass into nothingness; but still will keep 
 
 A bower quiet for us, and a sleep 
 
 Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet 
 
 breathing. 
 
 Therefore, on every morrow are we wreathing 
 A flowery band to bind us to the earth, 
 Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth 
 Of noble natures, of the gloomy days, 
 Of all the unhealthy and o'erdarkened ways 
 Made for our searching; yes, in spite of all, 
 Some shape of beauty moves away the pall 
 From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, 
 Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon 
 For simple sheep; and such are daffodils 
 With the green world they live in; and clear rills 
 That for themselves a cooling covert make 
 'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake, 
 Rich with sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms : 
 And such, too, is the grandeur of the dooms 
 We have imagined for the mighty dead. 
 All lovely tales that we have heard or read; 
 An endless fountain of immortal drink, 
 Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink. 
 
 John Keats. 
 
 40
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 Up ! up ! my Friend, and quit your books ; 
 Or surely you'll grow double; 
 Up ! up ! my Friend, and clear your looks ; 
 Why all this toil and trouble? 
 
 Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife; 
 Come, hear the woodland Linnet, 
 How sweet his music! on my life, 
 There's more of wisdom in it. 
 
 And hark ! how blithe the Throstle sings ! 
 He, too, is no mean preacher: 
 Come forth into the light of things, 
 Let Nature be your teacher. 
 
 She has a world of ready wealth, 
 Our minds and hearts to bless 
 Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health, 
 Truth breathed by cheerfulness. 
 
 One impulse from a vernal wood 
 May teach you more of man, 
 Of moral evil and of good 
 Than all the sages can. 
 
 Come forth and bring with you a heart 
 That watches and receives. 
 
 William Wordsworth.
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 THE OUT-OF-DOORS MAN 
 
 There's something to this life, I say, when all the 
 
 skies are blue, 
 And trees are turning green once more, and all 
 
 the grass is new; 
 There's more than gold and more than fame to 
 
 gather through the years; 
 It's good to be on hand to greet the robin that 
 
 appears; 
 It's good to feel the earth grow warm beneath 
 
 the kindly sun, 
 To wander out of doors once more and know a 
 
 wanderer's fun. 
 
 When Nature wakes her children gay, and 
 
 dresses them anew 
 In all their frocks and calico in every style and 
 
 hue, 
 And turns them loose, it seems to me they miss 
 
 a lot who hold 
 That life is just a round of strife for earthly fame 
 
 and gold ; 
 For flowers and birds and shady woods and 
 
 every breeze that blows 
 Hold just as sweet enchantments as the ones 
 
 that wealth bestows. 
 
 He has not spent his life in vain who loves the 
 
 patch of blue 
 Above his head when days are fair, and walks the 
 
 meadows through. 
 
 42
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 And he who whistles to his dog and tramps with 
 him the fields, 
 
 Has found a source of happiness that money sel- 
 dom yields. 
 
 And who shall say he is not rich, though little 
 gold he spends, 
 
 Who has the trees for comrades true and singing 
 birds for friends? 
 
 There's something to this life, I say, far more 
 
 than wealth or fame; 
 There is a splendid happiness which every man 
 
 may claim. 
 And when the green is on the trees and all the 
 
 brooks are clear, 
 There comes a balm for every ache, a smile for 
 
 every tear. 
 For he who steals the hours from toil to claim 
 
 the joys of spring 
 Thanks God that he has lived once more to hear 
 
 the robins sing. 
 
 Edgar A. Guest. 
 
 Copyrighted, 1919, by Edgar A. Guest. 
 
 Is this a time to be cloudy and sad, 
 
 When our mother Nature laughs around; 
 
 When even the deep blue heavens look glad, 
 And gladness breathes from the blossoming 
 ground? 
 
 43
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and 
 
 wren, 
 And the gossip of swallows through all the 
 
 sky; 
 
 The ground-squirrel gayly chirps by his den, 
 And the wilding bee hums merrily by. 
 
 The clouds are at play in the azure space, 
 And their shadows at play on the bright green 
 vale, 
 
 And here they stretch to the frolic chase, 
 And there they roll on the easy gale. 
 
 There's dance of leaves in that aspen bower, 
 
 There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree, 
 There's a smile on the fruit and a smile on the 
 
 flower, 
 
 And a laugh from the brook that runs to the 
 sea. 
 
 And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles 
 On the dewy earth that smiles in his ray, 
 
 On the leaping waters and gay young isles ; 
 Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away. 
 
 William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 44
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 SUMMAH'S COMIN' 
 
 Doan yer hear dat bluebird sing? 
 
 Lis'en, chile! 
 
 He so glad, he know it spring, 
 Fill he throat an' flap he wing, 
 Lawd ! whut peace dat souf wind bring, 
 
 Sorf an' mile! 
 
 Seem jes lak de wuld done sick 
 
 Er bein' froze. 
 
 Winds dat makes yer move so quick, 
 Swimmin'-pools all hard an' slick, 
 But dat sun '11 do de trick 
 
 'Mos' 'fore yer knows! 
 
 Saw a yaller flowah ter-day, 
 
 Down de road, 
 Standin' up an' lookin' gay, 
 Same ez ef it wanter say: 
 " Wintah, he done skeert away." 
 
 Spec' it knowed ! 
 
 Heerd de crick er-singin* low, 
 
 Sorter hummin'; 
 
 See how dull dat flan-wood glow! 
 Watch de grass commence ter grow. 
 'Mos' believe de whole wuld know 
 
 Summah's comin' ! 
 
 s : Leigh Mitchell Hodges. 
 
 45
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Now is the high-tide of the year, 
 
 And whatever of life hath ebbed away 
 Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer, 
 
 Into every bare inlet and creek and bay; 
 Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, 
 We are happy now because God wills it; 
 No matter how barren the past may have been, 
 'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are 
 
 green ; 
 
 We sit in the warm shade and feel right well 
 How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell; 
 We may shut our eyes, but we cannot help 
 
 knowing 
 
 That skies are clear and grass is growing; 
 The breeze comes whispering in our ear, 
 That dandelions are blossoming near, 
 
 That maise has sprouted, that streams are 
 
 flowing, 
 
 That the river is bluer than the sky, 
 That the robin is plastering his house hard by; 
 And if the breeze kept the good news back, 
 For other couriers we should not lack; 
 
 We could guess it all by yon heifer's low- 
 ing, 
 
 And hark ! how clear and bold chanticleer, 
 Warmed with the new wine of the year, 
 
 Tells all in his lusty crowing! 
 
 James Russell Lowell.
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL UFE 
 
 THE HEART'S SPRINGTIDE 
 
 The birds have come back to my heart, 
 
 'Tis May! 
 The crocus and hyacinth start 
 
 'Tis May! 
 
 From a Springtide of dreams 
 And a carol of streams, 
 A song has shot high in my heart 
 
 'Tis May! 
 
 The Winter is white on the bough- 
 You say? 
 
 And May but a mystery now 
 You say? 
 
 Nay, if lost in the blue 
 
 They were singing to you 
 
 The bloom would lie white on the bough ! 
 Nay, nay 
 
 The thrilling of shivering wings 
 
 To-day ! 
 The greening and growing of things 
 
 To-day ! 
 
 The shining and flowing 
 And sweeting and blowing 
 Would fill the air under your wings 
 
 To-day! 
 
 Martha Gilbert Dickinson. 
 
 47
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 COMFORT 
 
 Oh, every year hath its winter, 
 
 And every year hath its rain 
 But a day is always coming 
 
 When the birds go north again. 
 
 When the new leaves swell in the forest, 
 And the grass springs green on the plain 
 
 And the alder's veins turn crimson, 
 And the birds go north again. 
 
 Oh, every heart hath its sorrow, 
 And every heart hath its pain, 
 
 But a day is always coming 
 
 When the birds go north again. 
 
 "Tis the sweetest thing to remember 
 
 If courage be on the wane, 
 When the cold, dark days are over, 
 
 Why, the birds go north again. 
 
 Ella Higginson. 
 
 TO A SKY-LARK 
 
 Up with me! up with me into the clouds I 
 
 For thy song, Lark, is strong; 
 Up with me, up with me into the clouds ! 
 
 Singing, singing, 
 With clouds and sky about thee ringing, 
 
 Lift me, guide me till I find 
 That spot which seems to thy mind ! 
 48
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 I have walked through wilderness dreary, 
 
 And to-day my heart is weary; 
 
 Had I now the wings of a Faery, 
 
 Up to thee would I fly. 
 
 There's madness about thee, and joy divine 
 
 In that song of thine; 
 
 Lift me, guide me high and high 
 
 To thy banqueting-place in the sky. 
 
 Joyous as the morning, 
 Thou art laughing and scorning; 
 Thou hast a nest for thy love and thy rest, 
 And, though little troubled with sloth, 
 Drunken Lark! thou would'st be loth 
 To be such a traveller as I. 
 Happy, happy Liver, 
 
 With a soul as strong as a mountain river 
 Pouring out praise to the Almighty Giver, 
 Joy and jollity be with us both ! 
 
 Alas ! my journey, rugged and uneven, 
 Through prickly moors or dusty ways must 
 
 wind 
 
 But hearing thee, or others of thy kind, 
 As full of gladness and as free of heaven, 
 I, with my fate contented, will plod on, 
 And hope for higher raptures, when Life's day 
 
 is done. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 49
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 THE HUMBLE-BEE 
 
 Burly, dozing humble-bee, 
 Where thou art is clime for me. 
 Let them sail for Porto Rique, 
 Far-off heats through seas to seek; 
 I will follow thee alone, 
 Thou animated torrid-zone! 
 Zigzag steerer, desert cheerer, 
 Let me chase thy waving lines; 
 Keep me nearer, me thy hearer, 
 Singing over shrubs and vines. 
 
 Hot mid-summer's petted crone, 
 Sweet to me thy drowsy tone 
 Tells of countless sunny hours, 
 Long days, and solid banks of flowers ; 
 Of gulfs and sweetness without bound 
 In Indian wildernesses found; 
 Of Syrian peace, immortal leisure, 
 Firmest cheer and bird-like pleasure. 
 
 Aught unsavoury or unclean 
 Hath my insect never seen; 
 But violets and bilberry bells, 
 Maple-sap and daffodels, 
 Grass with green flag half-mast high, 
 Succory to match the sky, 
 Columbine with horn of honey, 
 Scented fern, and agrimony, 
 Clover, catchfly, adder's-tongue, 
 And brier-roses, dwelt among; 
 All beside was unknown waste, 
 All was picture as he passed. 
 So
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 Wiser far than human seer, 
 Yellow-breeched philosopher! 
 Seeing only what is fair, 
 Sipping only what is sweet, 
 Thou dost mock at fate and care, 
 Leave the chaff, and take the wheat. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 A DAY OF SUNSHINE 
 
 gift of God! O perfect day: 
 Whereon shall no man work, but play; 
 Whereon it is enough for me, 
 
 Not to be doing, but to be ! 
 
 Through every fibre of my brain, 
 Through every nerve, through every vein, 
 
 1 feel the electric thrill, the touch 
 Of life, that seems almost too much. 
 
 I hear the wind among the trees 
 Playing celestial symphonies; 
 I see the branches downward bent, 
 Like keys of some great instrument. 
 
 And over me unrolls on high 
 The splendid scenery of the sky, 
 Where through a sapphire sea the sun 
 Sails like a golden galleon.
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Blow, winds ! and waft through all the rooms 
 The snow-flakes of the cherry-blooms! 
 Blow, winds ! and bend within my reach 
 The fiery blossoms of the peach! 
 
 O Life and Love! O happy throng 
 Of thoughts, whose only speech is song! 
 O heart of man ! canst thou not be 
 Blithe as the air is, and as free? 
 
 Henry W. Long-fellow. 
 
 "I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD" 
 
 I wandered lonely as a Cloud 
 
 That floats on high o'er vales and hills, 
 
 When all at once I saw a crowd, 
 
 A host of golden Daffodils; 
 
 Beside the Lake, beneath the trees, 
 
 Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. 
 
 Continuous as the stars that shine 
 And twinkle in the milky way, 
 They stretched in never-ending line 
 Along the margin of a bay; 
 Ten thousand saw I at a glance, 
 Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 
 
 The waves beside them danced, but they 
 Out-did the sparkling waves in glee : 
 A poet could not but be gay, 
 In such a jocund company; 
 I gazed and gazed but little thought 
 What wealth the show to me had brought: 
 52
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 For oft, when on my couch I lie 
 
 In vacant or in pensive mood, 
 
 They flash upon that inward eye 
 
 Which is the bliss of solitude, 
 
 And then my heart with pleasure fills, 
 
 And dances with the Daffodils. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 
 There is a rapture on the lonely shore, 
 
 There is society, where none intrudes, 
 By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: 
 I love not man the less, but Nature more, 
 
 From these our interviews, in which I steal 
 From all I may be, or have been before, 
 
 To mingle with the Universe, and feel 
 
 What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all con- 
 ceal. 
 
 Lord Byron. 
 
 THE SEA 
 
 The Sea! the Sea! the open Sea! 
 The blue, the fresh, the ever free! 
 Without a mark, without a bound, 
 It runneth the earth's wide regions round; 
 It plays with the clouds, it mocks the skies; 
 Or like a cradled creature lies. 
 53
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea! 
 
 I am where I would ever be; 
 
 With the blue above, and the blue below, 
 
 And silence wheresoe'er I go; 
 
 If a storm should come and wake the deep, 
 
 What matter? I shall ride and sleep. 
 
 I love (oh ! how I love) to ride 
 On the fierce foaming, bursting tide, 
 When every mad wave drowns the moon, 
 Or whistles aloft his tempest tune, 
 And tells how goeth the world below, 
 And why the southwest blasts do blow. 
 
 Bryan W. Procter. 
 
 When heats as of a tropic clime 
 
 Burned all our inland valleys through, 
 
 Three friends, the guests of summer time, 
 Pitched their white tents where sea-winds 
 blew. 
 
 They rested there, escaped awhile 
 
 From cares that wear the life away, 
 To eat the lotus of the Nile 
 
 And drink the poppies of Cathay, 
 To fling their loads of custom down, 
 Like drift-weed, on the sand-slopes brown, 
 And in the sea waves drown the restless pack 
 Of duties, claims, and needs that barked upon 
 
 their track. 
 
 John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
 54
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 The little cares that fretted me, 
 
 I lost them yesterday among the fields 
 
 above the sea, 
 
 Among the winds at play: 
 Among the lowing of the herds, 
 The rustling of the trees, 
 Among the singing of the birds 
 The humming of the bees, 
 The foolish fears of what may happen 
 I cast them all away 
 Among the clover-scented grass, 
 Among the new-mown hay; 
 Among the husking of the corn 
 Where drowsy poppies nod, 
 Where ill thoughts die and good are born, 
 Out in the fields with God. 
 
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 THE HEART OF THE HILLS 
 
 There's a wonderful country lying 
 Far off from the noisy town, 
 
 Where the windflower swings, 
 And the veery sings, 
 And the tumbling brooks come down; 
 J Tis a land of light and of laughter, 
 Where peace all the woodland fills; 
 'Tis the land that lies 
 'Neath the summer skies, 
 In the heart of the happy hills. 
 55
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 The road to that wonderful country 
 Leads out from the gates of care; 
 
 And the tired feet 
 
 In the dusty street 
 Are longing to enter there; 
 And a voice from that land is calling, 
 In the rush of a thousand rills, 
 
 " Come away, away, 
 
 To the woods to-day, 
 To the heart of the happy hills." 
 
 Far away in that wonderful country, 
 Where the clouds are always blue, 
 In the shadows cool, 
 By the foaming pool, 
 We may put on strength anew; 
 We may drink from the magic fountains, 
 Where the wine of life distills; 
 And never a care 
 Shall find us there, 
 In the heart of the happy hills. 
 
 Boston Transcript. 
 
 Enter this wild wood 
 
 And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade 
 Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze 
 That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a 
 
 balm 
 
 To thy sick heart. Thou wilt find nothing here 
 Of all that pained thee in the haunts of men 
 And made thee loathe thy life. 
 
 William Cullen Bryant. 
 56
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 The tempered light of the woods is like a 
 perpetual morning, and is stimulating and 
 heroic. The anciently reported spells of these 
 places creep on us. The incommunicable trees 
 begin to persuade us to live with them and 
 quit our life of solemn trifles. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 I went to the woods because I wished to live 
 deliberately, to front only the essential facts of 
 life, and see if I could not learn what it had 
 to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover 
 that I had not lived. I did not wish to live 
 what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I 
 wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite 
 necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out 
 all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and 
 Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not 
 life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to 
 drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its 
 lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why 
 then to get the whole and genuine meanness of 
 it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if 
 it were sublime, to know it by experience, and 
 
 57
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 be able to give a true account of it in my next 
 excursion. For most men, it appears to me, 
 are in a strange uncertainty about it. 
 
 Henry D. Thoreau. 
 
 It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder; 
 It's the forests where silence has lease; 
 It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder; 
 It's the stillness that fills me with peace." 
 
 THE CALL OF THE WILD 
 
 Have you gazed on naked grandeur where 
 
 there's nothing else to gaze on, 
 Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore, 
 Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the 
 
 blinding sunsets blazon, 
 
 Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar? 
 Have you swept the visioned valley with the 
 
 green stream streaking through it, 
 Searched the Vastness for a something you 
 
 have lost? 
 Have you strung your soul to silence? Then 
 
 for God's sake go and do it; 
 Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the 
 cost. 
 
 58
 
 THE LURE OF THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 Have you known the Great White Silence, not a 
 
 snow-gemmed twig a-quiver? 
 (Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies.) 
 Have you broken trail on snowshoes, mushed 
 
 your huskies up the river, 
 Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched 
 
 the prize? 
 
 Have you marked the map's void spaces, min- 
 gled with the mongrel races, 
 Felt the savage strength of brute in every 
 
 thew? 
 And though grim as hell the worst is, can you 
 
 round it off with curses? 
 Then hearken to the Wild it's wanting you. 
 
 They have cradled you in custom, they have 
 
 primed you with their preaching, 
 They have soaked you in convention through 
 
 and through; 
 They have put you in a showcase; you're a credit 
 
 to their teaching 
 
 But can't you hear the Wild it's calling you. 
 Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what 
 
 luck betide us; 
 
 Let us journey to a lonely land I know. 
 There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a 
 
 star agleam to guide us, 
 And the Wild is calling, calling let us go. 
 
 Robert W. Service. 
 
 59
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 RECREATION 
 
 Oh, hurry, People, hurry! 
 
 You are missing all the show! 
 The great green earth a-spinning, 
 
 The midnight skies aglow, 
 The whirl of circling seasons, 
 
 The dance of flying days, 
 The scented shadowy forests, 
 
 The still blue water ways, 
 The meadows white like snow, 
 
 The meadows red and gold 
 
 with flowers 
 Oh, hurry, People, hurry ! 
 
 You are missing all the show I 
 
 Why are you waiting, People? 
 
 Leave your flat walls and floors, 
 There's room for everybody, 
 
 It's simply all out doors. 
 There's time for everybody 
 
 To have three months to play, 
 We needn't work the hours we do, 
 
 We needn't work that way. 
 We can arrange a whole new game 
 
 And show our children how 
 Why are you waiting, People? 
 
 Why don't you do it now? 
 
 Charlotte Perkins Gilman. 
 
 God's in His Heaven 
 All's right with the world ! 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 60
 
 PARTIH 
 WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS
 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 "How good is man's life / the mere living ! bow jit t 
 
 employ 
 All the heart and soul and the senses forever injey/"
 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 " Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn ! 
 
 Look to this Day! 
 For it is Life, the very Life of Life. 
 In its brief course lie all the 
 Verities and Realities of your Existence; 
 The Bliss of Growth, 
 The Glory of Action, 
 The Splendor of Beauty: 
 For Yesterday is but a Dream, 
 And To-morrow is only a Vision; 
 
 But to-day well lived makes 
 Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, 
 And every To-morrow a Vision of Hope." 
 
 " If solid happiness we prize, 
 Within our breast this jewel lies, 
 
 And they are fools that roam, 
 This world has nothing to bestow, 
 From our own selves our joy must flow, 
 And peace begins at home." 
 65
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 It's no' in books, it's no' in lear, 
 
 To make us truly blest; 
 If happiness has not her seat 
 
 And center in the breast, 
 We may be wise, or rich, or great, 
 
 But never can be blest. 
 
 Robert Burns. 
 
 The art of living -consists in the wise choice 
 of satisfactions. If we choose the fleshly, 
 they do not last; we are eventually bored and 
 wretched. If we choose the higher, they reveal 
 themselves as more permanent, growing by 
 what they feed on. So it is a question of 
 whether you want to be happy a little while or 
 all the time. 
 
 The mind and conscience are the latest 
 products of evolution. The body runs back to 
 the beasts. If your joys are in the mind, you 
 can say, in the language of a modern philos- 
 opher, " We have a degree of existence at 
 least ten times larger than others; in other 
 words, we exist ten times as much." 
 
 Test yourself, then. What do you like best? 
 
 Beer and beef arfd sleep, and slippered ease 
 
 66
 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 and dancing and the chase? Does it most 
 irritate you to be deprived of these things? 
 Do you get petulant when you cannot have 
 luxury, fine clothes, prominence, and all such? 
 Well, all the world is like that, not necessarily 
 wicked but just Common. The hope is that 
 you are dissatisfied with yourself. 
 
 But do you like like, mark you, not say 
 you like do you like Mona Lisa or Chopin's 
 Ballade or Walter Pater's writing or prayer 
 or a new idea or a beautiful woodland, so much 
 that you would miss a meal or forego being in- 
 troduced to an ambassador, for the sake of 
 enjoying them? Then rejoice! For you tread 
 a narrow way, and few there be that find it. 
 You may be many things reprehensible, but 
 you are not Common. 
 
 Dr. Frank Crane. 
 
 PEACE 
 
 'Tis not in seeking, 
 
 'Tis not in endless striving, 
 
 Thy quest is found ; 
 Be still and listen; 
 Be still and drink the quiet 
 
 Of all around. 
 67
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Not for thy crying, 
 
 Not for thy loud beseeching, 
 
 Will peace draw near; 
 Rest with palms folded; 
 Rest with thine eyelids fallen 
 
 Lo! peace is here. 
 
 Edward Rowland Sill. 
 
 Happiness cannot come from without. It 
 must come from within. It is not that which 
 we see or touch or feel, or that which others do 
 for us which makes us happy it is that which 
 we think and feel and do, first, ..." for 
 the other fellow," and then for ourselves. 
 
 I know that inability to see, inability to hear, 
 inability of normal speech, cannot shut happi- 
 ness away from one who loves and is loved, 
 from one who works, and, like all workers, in- 
 evitably gains the pay for labor, from one who 
 wishes all men well, and tries, however humbly, 
 to be helpful, believing that fundamentally all 
 men are good. 
 
 Helen Keller. 
 
 Copyrighted by Edward Marshall Syndicate. 
 (From an Interview.) 
 
 68
 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 " I do not mean that we are to go and search 
 for unhappiness; but on the other hand, the 
 only happiness worth seeking for is a happi- 
 ness which takes all these dark things into ac- 
 count, looks them in the face, reads the secret 
 of their dim eyes and set lips, dwells with them, 
 and learns to be tranquil in their presence." 
 
 OPEN THE DOOR 
 
 Open the door, let in the air; 
 The winds are sweet and the flowers are fair. 
 Joy is abroad in the world to-day : 
 If our door is wide it may come this way 
 Open the door! 
 
 Open the door, let in the sun; 
 He hath a smile for every one; 
 He hath made of the raindrops gold and gems, 
 He may change our tears to diadems 
 Open the door! 
 
 Open the door of the soul, let in 
 Strong, pure thoughts which shall banish sin ; 
 They will grow and bloom with a grace divine, 
 And their fruit shall be sweeter than that of 
 the vine 
 
 Open the door! 
 69
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Open the door of the heart, let in 
 Sympathy sweet for stranger and kin; 
 It will make the halls of the heart so fair 
 That angels may enter unaware 
 Open the door! 
 
 British Weekly. 
 
 THE MURMUR OF A WATERFALL 
 
 The murmur of a waterfall 
 
 A mile away, 
 The rustle when a robin lights 
 
 Upon a spray, 
 The lapping of a lowland stream 
 
 On dripping boughs, 
 The sound of grazing from a herd 
 
 Of gentle cows, 
 The echo from the wooded hill 
 
 Of cuckoo's call, 
 The quiver through the meadow grass 
 
 At evening fall : 
 Too subtle are these harmonies 
 
 For pen and rule; 
 Such music is not understood 
 
 By any school; 
 But when the brain is overwrought 
 
 It hath a spell, 
 Beyond all human skill and power 
 
 To make it well. 
 70
 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 The memory of a kindly word 
 
 For long gone by, 
 The fragrance of a fading flower 
 
 Sent lovingly, 
 The gleaming of a sudden smile 
 
 Or sudden tear, 
 The warmer pressure of the hand, 
 
 The tone of cheer, 
 The hush that means " I cannot speak, 
 
 But I have heard!" 
 The note that only bears a verse 
 
 From God's own Word : 
 Such tiny things we hardly count 
 
 As ministry; 
 The givers deeming they have shown 
 
 Scant sympathy; 
 But when the heart is overwrought, 
 
 Oh, who can tell 
 The power of such tiny things 
 
 To make it well ? 
 
 Frances Ridley Havergol. 
 
 GRANT ME THY PEACE! 
 
 Lord, through the coming year I make no plea 
 For wealth or power; neither that of grief 
 I have no portion ; but where'er I be, 
 Grant me Thy peace! 
 
 I ask not that my days shall pleasure know: 
 Nor that from sorrow I shall find relief; 
 In hours of joy, in hours of pain or woe, 
 Grant me Thy peace!
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 If storm-clouds lower, if the sky be gray 
 And lightnings rift the air; if stormy seas 
 Threaten to me engulf, dear Lord, I pray, 
 Grant me Thy peace! 
 
 If those I trust deny me, or betray, 
 Till sorrow's chalice holds but bitter lees; 
 If hopes, long cherished, fail me by the way, 
 Grant me Thy peace! 
 
 If joy bids fair to be my welcome guest 
 Lest I forget oh, leave me not alone; 
 But let my happy heart have added zest; 
 Grant me Thy peace! 
 
 That peace which passeth understanding, give. 
 A peace which deadens pain when hope hath 
 
 flown 
 
 In joy, in grief, whether I die or live, 
 Grant me Thy peace ! 
 
 Elisabeth Crannell. 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 'Tis, finally, the man, who, lifted high, 
 Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye, 
 Or left unthought-of in obscurity, 
 Who, with a toward or untoward lot, 
 Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not, 
 Plays, in the many games of life, that one 
 Where what he most doth value must be won: 
 73
 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 Whom neither shape of danger can dismay, 
 Nor thought of tender happiness betray; 
 Who, not content that former worth stand fast, 
 Looks forward, persevering to the last, 
 From well to better, daily self-surpast; 
 Who, whether praise of him must walk the 
 
 earth 
 
 Forever, and to noble deeds give birth, 
 Or he must go to dust without his fame, 
 And leave a dead unprofitable name, 
 Finds comfort in himself and in his cause; 
 And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws 
 His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause; 
 This is the happy Warrior; this is he 
 Whom every man in arms should wish to be. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 I hold that human happiness, 
 
 If built on self, is nothing worth 
 
 That bliss translated means to bless 
 Some other denizen of earth. 
 
 The selfish man who lives alone 
 For greed of gain for paltry pelf, 
 
 Knows not his heart has turned to stone 
 That blindly he defrauds himself. 
 
 He might have won a wealth of love 
 By kindly acts and words of cheer 
 
 And joy, all other joys above 
 A needy neighbor's grateful tear. 
 73
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 For deeds of loving kindness will 
 
 In reflex influence return 
 To render kind hearts kinder still, 
 
 To make love's flame still brighter burn. 
 
 Who solely lived to please himself 
 
 E'er aught but disappointment found? 
 
 Pleasure's a sly, deceitful elf, 
 
 Who hides her chains until you're bound. 
 
 Oh, men are dull of heart and cold, 
 And find His lesson hard to learn 
 
 Who came the secret to unfold 
 
 How peace is found for which they yearn. 
 
 Love's the fulfilling of the law, 
 For love is law, and law is love; 
 
 If our old earth this mandate saw 
 
 Fulfilled, 'twould be like heaven above. 
 
 Then build your hope of happiness 
 Upon the rock of His command 
 
 Who gave His all your life to bless, 
 Or find you've built upon the sand. 
 
 Nannie H. Woodruff. 
 
 Let me examine honestly my mental proc- 
 esses, and I must admit that my attitude to- 
 ward others is entirely different from my atti- 
 tude toward myself. I must admit that in the 
 
 74
 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 seclusion of my mind, though I say not a word, 
 I am constantly blaming others because I am 
 not happy. Whenever I bump up against an 
 opposing personality and my smooth progress 
 is impeded, I secretly blame the opposer. I 
 act as though I had shouted to the world: 
 " Clear out of the way, every one, for I am 
 coming! " Every one does not clear out of the 
 way. I did not really expect every one to clear 
 out of the way. But I act within as though I 
 had so expected. I blame. Hence kindli- 
 ness, hence cheerfulness, is rendered vastly 
 more difficult for me. 
 
 What I ought to do is this: I ought to reflect 
 again and again, and yet again, that the beings 
 among whom I have to steer, the living environ- 
 ment out of which I have to manufacture my 
 happiness, are just as inevitable in the scheme 
 of evolution as I am myself; have just as much 
 right to be themselves as I have to be myself; 
 are precisely my equals in the face of Nature; 
 are capable of being explained as I am capable 
 of being explained; are entitled to the same 
 latitude as I am entitled to; and are no more 
 responsible for their composition and their en- 
 vironment than I for mine. I ought to reflect 
 
 75
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 again and again, and yet again that they all 
 deserve from me as much sympathy as I give 
 to myself. Having thus reflected in a general 
 manner, I ought to take one by one the in- 
 dividuals with whom I am brought into fre- 
 quent contact, and seek, by a deliberate effort 
 of the imagination and the reason, to under- 
 stand them, to understand why they act thus 
 and thus, what their difficulties are, what their 
 " explanation " is, and how friction can be 
 avoided. Here is a course of discipline. If 
 I follow it I shall gradually lose the preposter- 
 ous habit of blaming, and I shall have laid the 
 foundations of that quiet, unshakable self- 
 possession which is the indispensable prelimi- 
 nary of conduct according to reason, of 
 thorough efficiency in the machine of happi- 
 ness. 
 
 Arnold Bennett. 
 
 No one seems to doubt the immense human 
 interest attached to joy. It is a sacred flame 
 that must be fed, and that throws a splendid 
 radiance over life. He who takes pains to 
 foster it accomplishes a work as profitable for 
 
 humanity as he who builds bridges, pierces 
 
 76
 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 tunnels, or cultivates the ground. So to order 
 one's life as to keep, amid toils and suffering, 
 the faculty of happiness, and be able to propa- 
 gate it in a sort of salutary contagion among 
 one's fellow-men, is to do a work of fraternity 
 in the noblest sense. To give a trifling pleas- 
 ure, smooth an anxious brow, bring a little 
 light into dark paths what a truly divine 
 office in the midst of this poor humanity ! But 
 it is only in great simplicity of heart that one 
 succeeds in filling it. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 Let us never forget that an act of kindness 
 is of itself an act of happiness. 
 
 ' Maurice Maeterlinck. 
 
 To every man there openeth 
 
 A Way, and Ways, and a Way, 
 
 And the High Soul climbs the High way 
 
 And the Low Soul gropes the Low, 
 
 And in between, on the misty flats, 
 
 The rest drift to and fro. 
 
 But to every man there openeth 
 
 A High Way and a Low, 
 
 And every man decideth 
 
 The Way his soul shall go. 
 
 John Oxenham. 
 77
 
 EFFICIENCY 
 
 Those who live on the mountain have a longer day than 
 those who live in the valley. Sometimes all we need to 
 brighten our day is to climb up a little higher. 
 
 ELLA FLAGG YOUNG.
 
 EFFICIENCY 
 
 So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
 
 So near is God to man, 
 When duty whispers low, Thou must, 
 
 The youth replies, I can. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not 
 
 breaths ; 
 
 In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
 We should count time by heart-throbs. He 
 
 most lives 
 Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the 
 
 best. 
 
 Philip James Bailey. 
 
 THE UPPER ROAD 
 
 Far lie the mountain crests against the sky; 
 How shall I find my way so lone, so high, 
 
 Without a chart, and with a heavy load? 
 Pilgrim, one certain Guide is thine at will, 
 Where the road forks, winding o'er plain and 
 
 hill, 
 
 Whichever way seems easier, choose thou still 
 
 The upper road. 
 
 81
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 By brier and bramble hedged on either hand 
 Often it climbs within a lonely land 
 
 Where 'neath thy stumbling feet sharp stones 
 
 are strowed. 
 
 Yet choose it ever, for beyond it rise 
 The steadfast peaks that pierce the eternal skies, 
 They are thy goal; here thy beginning lies, 
 The upper road. 
 
 Comrades may smile, and beckon thee instead, 
 To take the lower path, so smooth to tread, 
 
 Where roses bloom, without a thorn to goad, 
 A pleasant choice and yet it leads away 
 From the high mountain tops that front the day. 
 Turn, pilgrim, turn, and take the wiser way, 
 The upper road. 
 
 On these rough upward paths have climbed the 
 
 feet 
 
 Of all earth's heroes, all her saints, to meet 
 Reward and joy, at the sure end bestowed. 
 Their steps have stumbled, too, their burdens 
 
 weighed 
 
 Heavy as thine; yet forward, undismayed, 
 They pressed before thee. Choose, nor be 
 afraid, 
 
 The upper road. 
 
 ^-Priscilla Leonard.
 
 EFFICIENCY 
 
 One's ideal is one's vision from the slope of 
 the mountain of endeavor: each step of climb- 
 ing widens the horizon, not in one only, but in 
 all directions; while the wider vision inspires 
 renewed effort. Thus it is impossible to 
 change either the ideal or the conduct of a man 
 or an epoch of men, without changing both 
 elements: but it is the ideal which is logically 
 the cause, the conduct which is the effect; and 
 always the creative element in the dynamic 
 progress of the world comes in through the 
 elevation of the ideal, that is, through the 
 higher vision of the men who are upon the 
 advancing margin of life. 
 
 Edward Howard Griggs. 
 
 TO PRIZE LIFE'S HARDNESS 
 
 To prize life's hardness! find delight in ways 
 
 That scale the hill crest and the loftier air; 
 To rouse some bird song in the desolate days 
 
 When Winter holds the forest froz'n and bare ; 
 To wear the cypress as though laurel-wreathed; 
 
 To lure a smile from brows that darkly frown ; 
 To say to traits of evil, age bequeathed, 
 
 " Ye may be blotted out ! " and fight them 
 down.
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 To take what Heaven or Circumstance has sent 
 And bend it to the making of a man ! 
 
 This is the aim whereto my days are blent, 
 My fond endeavor, waking vision, plan. 
 
 O life ! O earth ! I prize ye for your smart, 
 
 And for your rudeness I am glad at heart. 
 
 James H. West. 
 
 "THE INEVITABLE" 
 
 I like the man who faces what he must 
 
 With step triumphant and a heart of cheer, 
 Who fights the daily battle without fear, 
 
 Sees his hopes fail, yet keeps unfaltering trust 
 That God is God that somehow, true and just, 
 
 His plans work out for mortals; not a tear 
 Is shed when fortune, which the world holds 
 dear, 
 
 Falls from his grasp ; better with love a crust 
 Than living in dishonor; envies not 
 
 Nor loses faith in man, but does his best, 
 Nor even murmurs at his humbler lot, 
 
 But, with a smile and words of hope, gives zest 
 To every toiler. He alone is great 
 
 Who, by a life heroic, conquers fate. 
 
 Sarah Knowles Bolton. 
 
 84
 
 EFFICIENCY 
 
 LITTLE THINGS 
 
 Here's to the one who loves to do 
 
 The little things of life, 
 Who lets no large ambition woo 
 
 Him into worldly strife; 
 A kindly man content to work 
 
 At any useful task, 
 Who has no duties he would shirk, 
 
 No favors he would ask. 
 
 Here's to the man, where'er he be! 
 
 And O, Thou gentle One, 
 Remember, in Thy ministry, 
 
 The good that he has done, 
 The happy words, the helpful deeds, 
 
 So tender and so true ! 
 For those who have no selfish needs, 
 
 Alas, are all too few. 
 
 Ah, he who takes a humble part, 
 
 In trade, in church, in state, 
 And lets no envy fill his heart 
 
 With hatred for the great, 
 Can watch the wheel of fortune roll 
 
 Its luckless favors out, 
 Conscious that he has won his soul 
 
 Who conquers care and doubt. 
 
 This health to him! who learns to feel 
 
 That little things in life 
 Make up the best of human weal, 
 
 The worst of human strife; 
 85
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Who hides his anger in a smile, 
 
 His worry in good cheer, 
 And lives without a trace of guile, 
 
 And dies without a fear! 
 
 Charles W. Stevenson. 
 
 SYMPHONY OF LIFE 
 
 To live content with small means; 
 
 To seek elegance rather than luxury, 
 
 Refinement rather than fashion; 
 
 To be worthy, not simply respectable; 
 
 And wealthy, not simply rich ; 
 
 To study hard, think quietly, 
 
 Talk gently, act frankly; 
 
 To listen with open heart to birds and stars, 
 
 To babes and sages; 
 
 To bear all cheerfully, do all bravely; 
 
 Await occasions, never hurry 
 
 In a word, to let the spiritual life 
 
 Grow up through and above the common 
 
 This to be my " symphony of life." 
 
 William Henry Channing. 
 
 A LOWLY LIFE 
 
 So uncomplainingly she bore the moil 
 Of housewife care and unremitting toil, 
 And, be it said, throughout her length of days 
 Her womanly reward was stinted praise. 
 
 86
 
 EFFICIENCY 
 
 She lived a life as lowly as the loam, 
 Yet just her patient smile suggested home 
 And mother-love that watched o'er trundle-bed, 
 Till, e'en the praiseless husband often said 
 She made his home-life happy. 
 
 So, when the friends had crossed upon her breast 
 Her tired hands that she might better rest, 
 And noted the angelic smile of peace 
 She wore at labor's end and toil's surcease, 
 An epitaph to mark her grave they framed, 
 And, while no deed of martyrdom was named, 
 The lines told all of wife and mother strife 
 They writ beneath her name : " A Farmer's Wife 
 She made his home-life happy." 
 
 Roy. Farrell Green. 
 
 Lord, let me make this rule 
 [To think of life as school, 
 And try my best 
 To stand each test, 
 And do my work, 
 And nothing shirk. 
 
 Should some one else outshine 
 This dullard head of mine, 
 
 Should I be sad? 
 
 I will be glad, 
 
 To do my best 
 
 Is Thy behest. 
 87
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Some day the bell will sound, 
 Some day my heart will bound, 
 
 As with a shout 
 
 That school is out, 
 
 And lessons done, 
 
 I homeward run. 
 
 Maltbie Davenport Babcock. 
 
 THE DAY AND THE WORK 
 
 There is waiting a work where only his hands 
 
 can avail; 
 And so, if he falters, a chord in the music will 
 
 fail. 
 He may laugh to the sky, he may lie for an hour 
 
 in the sun; 
 But he dare not go hence till the labor appointed 
 
 is done. 
 
 To each man is given a marble to carve for the 
 
 wall: 
 A stone that is needed to heighten the beauty 
 
 of all: 
 And only his soul has the magic to give it a 
 
 grace : 
 And only his hands have the cunning to put it 
 
 in place. 
 
 Edzvin Markham. 
 
 88
 
 EFFICIENCY 
 
 "AT IT ALL THE TIME " 
 
 There's a prosy kind of motto that you'll find is 
 
 very rife 
 With the people you most envy for their rare 
 
 success in life. 
 I'll admit it's not romantic, has no touch of the 
 
 sublime, 
 But it's just the rule to work by, namely, At it 
 
 all the time. 
 
 You'll observe that men and women who, 'tis 
 said, have made their mark 
 
 Do not drop the chalk of effort at the first ap- 
 proach of dark; 
 
 And you'll find them at life's blackboard when 
 the sun begins to climb, 
 
 For, obedient to their motto, they keep at it 
 all the time. 
 
 The thing 1 God sets them doing gets to be their 
 
 chief delight; 
 'Tis their first thought in the morning and their 
 
 last concern at night. 
 They will turn away from pleasure just as 
 
 promptly as from crime; 
 Simple duty is their safeguard, for they're at it 
 
 all the time. 
 
 It's the noblest of all passions, this consuming 
 
 zeal for work, 
 This wholesome dread of failure or of being 
 
 called a shirk ; 
 
 89
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 And I'm sure the wisest motto for success, in 
 
 prose or rhyme, 
 Is that plain rule of the workers keeping at it 
 
 all the time. 
 
 James Buckham. 
 
 A SONG FOR THOSE WHO SUCCEED 
 
 A song for those who succeed: 
 (You there !) 
 
 You whole successful crew, 
 Ye men of the strong, heroic stripe, 
 
 Here is a song for you, 
 Now who is there here in this whole wide throng 
 
 In whose honest ear I can sing my song 
 
 (Stand up!) 
 
 d 
 
 Ah, here's my millionaire: 
 
 (Come here!) 
 
 Good sir, your wealth is great, 
 And well you have scooped your fortune, man, 
 
 From the loosened grasp of fate. 
 You have picked up gold as the long years roll. 
 But while picking up gold you have dropped 
 your soul: 
 
 (Go back!) 
 
 Ah, here's my wide-browed sage: 
 
 (This way !) 
 
 Five thousand years of lore ! 
 Faith, man, 'tis a goodly heritage, 
 But you need a little more. 
 90
 
 EFFICIENCY 
 
 You have garnered all thoughts from the four 
 
 winds blown, 
 
 But forgotten meantime to think your own : 
 (Sit down!) 
 
 Ah, here's my artist friend: 
 
 (Step up!) 
 
 You have given dreams to men, 
 Yes, a world of dreams you have bodied forth 
 
 With chisel, brush and pen; 
 But you've lost the meat of the tough world's 
 
 strife, 
 
 And missed the juice of the vintage of life ; 
 (Step down!) 
 
 Who's that old woman there? 
 
 (Sit down!) 
 She has no lore or pelf, 
 And has worked so hard for those she loved 
 
 She has never thought of herself. 
 Step up, step up in the whole world's view; 
 Ah, madam, this song is meant for you : 
 (Step up!) 
 
 Sam Walter Foss. 
 
 I desire to radiate health, cheerfulness, sin- 
 cerity, calm courage and good-will. I wish to 
 live without hate, whim, jealousy, envy or fear. 
 I wish to be simple, honest, natural, frank, 
 clean in mind and clean in body, unaffected; 
 
 9'
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 ready to say " I do not know " if so it be, to 
 meet all men on an absolute equality, to face 
 any obstacle and meet any difficulty unafraid 
 and unabashed. I wish others to live their 
 lives, too, up to their highest, fullest and best. 
 To that end I pray that I may never meddle, 
 dictate, interfere, give advice that is not 
 wanted, nor assist when my services are not 
 needed. If I can help people I'll do it by 
 giving them a chance to help themselves; and 
 if I can uplift or inspire, let it be by example, 
 influence and suggestion rather than by in- 
 junction and dictation. That is to say, I de- 
 sire to be radiant to radiate life. 
 
 Elbert Hubbard. 
 
 HOW DID YOU DIE? 
 
 Did you tackle that trouble that came your way 
 
 With a resolute heart and cheerful? 
 Or hide your face from the light of day 
 
 With a craven soul and fearful? 
 Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce, 
 
 Or a trouble is what you make it, 
 And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts, 
 
 But only how did you take it? 
 92
 
 EFFICIENCY 
 
 You are beaten to earth ? Well, well, what's that ? 
 
 Come up with a smiling face. 
 It's nothing against you to fall down flat, 
 
 But to lie there that's disgrace. 
 The harder you're thrown, why the higher you 
 bounce, 
 
 Be proud of your blackened eye! 
 It isn't the fact that you're licked that counts; 
 
 It's how did you fight and why ? 
 
 And though you be done to the death, what then? 
 
 If you battled the best you could, 
 If you played your part in the world of men, 
 
 Why, the Critic will call it good. 
 Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a 
 pounce, 
 
 And whether he's slow or spry, 
 It isn't the fact that you're dead that counts, 
 
 But only how did you die? 
 
 Edmund Vance Cooke< 
 
 IF 
 
 If you can keep your head when all about you 
 
 Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; 
 If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you 
 
 But make allowance for their doubting too: 
 If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 
 
 Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, 
 Or being hated, don't give way to hating, 
 
 And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise : 
 93
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 If you can dream and not make dreams your 
 
 master; 
 If you can think and not make thoughts your 
 
 aim; 
 If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 
 
 And treat those two impostors just the same: 
 If you can hear the truth you've spoken 
 
 Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 
 Or watch the things you gave your life to, 
 
 broken, 
 
 And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out 
 tools ; 
 
 If you can make a heap of all your winnings 
 
 And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 
 And lose, and start again at your beginnings 
 
 And never breathe a word of your loss: 
 If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 
 
 To serve your turn long after they are gone, 
 And so hold on when there is nothing in you 
 
 Except the Will which says to them : " Hold 
 on!" 
 
 If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, 
 
 Or walk with Kings nor lose the common 
 
 touch ; 
 If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, 
 
 If all men count with you, but none too much: 
 If you can fill the unforgiving minute 
 
 With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, 
 Yours is the earth and everything that's in it ; 
 
 And which is more you'll be a man, my Son. 
 
 Rudyard Kipling. 
 94
 
 EFFICIENCY 
 
 THE FEAR OF BEING GREAT 
 
 Sounds a bit odd, doesn't it? Suggests 
 some slip of the typewriter, or a printer's mis- 
 take? The fear of being great! " Why bless 
 you," you exclaim, " we're not afraid of being 
 great. We're afraid we won't be great." 
 
 Nothing of the sort. You're afraid to be 
 great. That's what is the matter with you. 
 And so long as that fear has right of way in 
 the organization of you, you won't be great. 
 
 But I can't be harsh with you. There are 
 excuses for this fear of yours. To be great is 
 to be greatly a sufferer, greatly misunderstood, 
 greatly embattled, greatly aloof and alone. 
 To be great is to have one's visage marred 
 more than any man, and one's form more than 
 the sons of men. I hardly can blame you for 
 not wishing to pay the price. 
 
 Washington paid it. And Lincoln. Both 
 were greatly great, because greatly beset and 
 buffeted. Read the letter of Hamilton en- 
 treating Washington to accept the Presidency 
 when that Great heart shrank from the task 
 with an utter shrinking. The dark days 
 of the war defeats, impoverishment, dis- 
 loyalties, domestic treason and foreign levy 
 
 95
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 had worn him down; so that now he cried out 
 for ease from the burden. Nor were they cries 
 without cause. No President than he was 
 ever more savagely vilified. 
 
 And Lincoln! man of sorrows, man ac- 
 quainted with grief. The show of his counte- 
 nance witnesses for him in the matter. Costly 
 the price he paid. The deep, sorrowful eyes 
 of him, and stricken face, tell the story. It is 
 known of all. 
 
 Yes, you're afraid to be great: afraid to 
 stand alone. You choose to be like others 
 float with the tide; go with the crowd, swal- 
 lowed in the gregarious nonentity ! That's the 
 herding instinct, which deteriorates men into 
 cattle. 
 
 It's the easiest way. And will keep your 
 soul scrawny forever. 
 
 t-Bouck White. 
 
 Q 
 
 evjsb 
 
 96
 
 CIVIC WELFARE 
 
 Let us have faith that right makes might, and in 
 that faith let us do our duty as we understand it. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
 
 CIVIC WELFARE 
 
 Be useful where thou livest, that they may 
 Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still, 
 
 Find out men's wants and will, 
 And meet them there. All worldly joys go less 
 To the one joy of doing kindness. 
 
 George Herbert. 
 
 A child's kiss 
 
 Set on thy sighing lips, shall make thee glad ; 
 A poor man served by thee, shall make thee rich ; 
 A sick man helped by thee, shall make thee 
 
 strong, 
 
 Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense 
 Of service which thou renderest. 
 
 Elizabeth B. Browning. 
 
 Is thy cruse of comfort wasting? 
 
 Rise and share it with another, 
 And through all the years of famine, 
 
 It shall serve thee and thy brother. 
 Is thy burden hard and heavy? 
 
 Do thy steps drag heavily? 
 Help to bear thy brother's burden ; 
 
 God will bear both it and thee. 
 
 Elizabeth Charles. 
 99
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 I am glad to think 
 
 I am not bound to make the world go right; 
 But only to discover and to do, 
 With cheerful heart, the work that God appoints. 
 
 I will trust in Him, 
 
 That He can hold His own; and I will take 
 His will, above the work He sendeth me, 
 To be my chiefest good. 
 
 Jean Ingelow. 
 
 What asks our Father of His children save 
 Justice and mercy and humility, 
 A reasonable service of good deeds, 
 Pure living, tenderness to human needs, 
 Reverence, and trust, and prayer for light to 
 
 see 
 
 The Master's footprints in our daily ways? 
 No knotted scourge, nor sacrificial knife, 
 But the calm beauty of an ordered life 
 Whose every breathing is unwonted praise. 
 
 John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
 Be strong! 
 
 We are not here to play, to dream, to drift. 
 We have hard work to do, and loads to lift 
 Shun not the struggle ; face it. 'Tis God's gift. 
 
 Be strong! 
 
 Say not the days are evil, who's to blame? 
 And fold the hands and acquiesce O shame ! 
 Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's 
 name. 
 
 100
 
 CIVIC WELFARE 
 
 Be strong! 
 
 It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong, 
 How hard the battle goes, the day how long, 
 Faint not, fight on! To-morrow comes the 
 song. 
 
 Maltbie Davenport Babcock. 
 
 
 'Tis well! from this day forward we shall know 
 That in ourselves our safety must be sought; 
 That by our own right hands it must be wrought, 
 That we must stand unpropped, or be laid low. 
 O Dastard whom such foretaste doth not cheer! 
 We shall exult, if they who rule the land 
 Be men who hold its many blessings dear, 
 Wise, upright, valiant; not a servile band, 
 Who are to judge of danger which they fear, 
 And honor which they do not understand. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 Is true Freedom but to break 
 Fetters for our own dear sake, 
 And, with leathern hearts, forget 
 That we owe mankind a debt? 
 No ! true freedom is to share 
 All the chains our brothers wear, 
 And, with heart and hand, to be 
 Earnest to make others free ! 
 101
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 They are slaves who fear to speak 
 For the fallen and the weak; 
 They are slaves who will not choose 
 Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, 
 Rather than in silence shrink; 
 From the truth they needs must think; 
 They are slaves who dare not be 
 In the right with two or three. 
 
 James Russell Lowell, 
 
 In the long run, success or failure will be 
 conditioned upon the way in which the average 
 man, the average woman, does his or her duty, 
 first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of life, 
 and next in those great occasional crises which 
 call for the heroic virtues. 
 
 The average citizen must be a good citizen 
 if our republics are to succeed. The stream 
 will not permanently rise higher than the main 
 source; and the main source of national power 
 and national greatness is found in the average 
 citizenship of the nation. Therefore it be- 
 hooves us to do our best to see that the stand- 
 ard of the average citizen is kept high ; and the 
 average citizen cannot be kept high unless the 
 standard of the leaders is very much higher. 
 ***** 
 
 102
 
 CIVIC WELFARE 
 
 The man who does nothing cuts the same 
 sordid figure in the pages of history, whether 
 he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is 
 little use for the being whose tepid soul knows 
 nothing of the great and generous emotion of 
 the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty 
 enthusiasm of the men who quell the storm and 
 ride the thunder. Well for these men, if they 
 succeed; well, also, though not so well, if they 
 fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, 
 and have put forth all their heart and strength. 
 It is war-worn Hotspur spent with hard fight- 
 ing, he of the many errors and the valiant end, 
 over whose memory we love to linger, not over 
 the memory of the young lord who " but for 
 the vile guns would have been a soldier." 
 ***** 
 
 In short, the good citizen in a republic must 
 realize that he ought to possess two sets of 
 qualities, and that neither avails without the 
 other. He must have those qualities which 
 make for efficiency, and he must also have 
 those qualities which direct the efficiency into 
 channels for the public good. 
 
 He is useless if he is inefficient. There is 
 
 nothing to be done with the type of citizen of 
 
 103
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 whom all that can be said is that he is harmless. 
 Virtue which is dependent upon a sluggish cir- 
 culation is not impressive. There is little place 
 in active life for the timid good man. The 
 man who is saved by weakness from robust 
 wickedness is likewise rendered immune from 
 robuster virtues. The good citizen in a repub- 
 lic must first of all be able to hold his own. He 
 is no good citizen unless he has the ability which 
 will make him work hard and which at need 
 will make him fight hard. The good citizen 
 is not a good citizen unless he is an efficient 
 citizen. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 OUR COUNTRY 
 
 " O Beautiful, my country! " 
 
 Be thine a nobler care 
 Than all thy wealth of commerce, 
 
 Thy harvests waving fair; 
 Be it thy pride to lift up 
 
 The manhood of the poor; 
 Be thou to the oppressed 
 Fair freedom's open door ! 
 104
 
 CIVIC WELFARE 
 
 For thee our fathers suffered, 
 
 For thee they toiled and prayed; 
 Upon thy holy altar 
 
 Their willing lives they laid: 
 Thou hast no common birthright, 
 
 Grand memories on thee shine; 
 The blood of pilgrim nations 
 
 Commingled flows in thine. 
 
 O Beautiful, our country ! 
 
 Round thee in love we draw; 
 Thine is the grace of freedom, 
 
 The majesty of law: 
 Be righteousness thy scepter, 
 
 Justice thy diadem; 
 And on thy shining forehead 
 
 Be peace the crowning gem ! 
 
 Frederick L. Hostner. 
 
 Therefore, though few may praise, or help, or 
 
 heed us, 
 
 Let us work on with head, or heart, or hand, 
 For that we know the future ages need us, 
 And we must help our time to take its stand." 
 
 The time is ripe for a new prophet, who 
 shall call the world back to the simple realities 
 of human life. The awaited teacher should 
 
 105
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 found no order and establish no sect. It is not 
 the multiplication of institutions that is needed, 
 but the consecration of individuals. He must 
 have the reserve of wisdom; he must forego 
 authority and disclaim unusual election. He 
 must find the ideal by transfiguring the com- 
 monplace; he must see and teach the divinity 
 of common things. He should live in the 
 world, and yet maintain a perfect consecration 
 to an ideal of simplicity, spirituality and per- 
 sonal helpfulness. He should call men away 
 from the senseless rush for luxury, fashion, 
 dissipation; and turn them to the things of the 
 spirit personal love, thought, beauty, imme- 
 diate helpfulness. It is not a new gospel that 
 is needed, but the gospel anew. 
 
 Edward Howard Griggs. 
 
 THE RIGHT IS MARCHING ON 
 
 From age to age they gather, all the brave 
 
 of heart and strong, 
 In the strife of truth with error, of the right 
 
 against the wrong; 
 
 I can see their gleaming banner, I can hear 
 their triumph song. 
 
 The truth is marching on ! 
 106
 
 CIVIC WELFARE 
 
 " In this sign we conquer ; " 'tis the symbol 
 
 of our faith, 
 Made holy by the might of love triumphant 
 
 over death ; 
 
 "He finds his life who loseth it," forevermore 
 it saith : 
 
 The right is marching on ! 
 
 The earth is circling onward out of shadow 
 
 into light; 
 
 The stars keep watch above our way, how- 
 ever dark the night; 
 
 For every martyr's stripe there glows a bar 
 of morning bright, 
 
 And love is marching on ! 
 
 Frederick L. Hosmer. 
 
 THE COMING RACE 
 
 These things shall be, a loftier race 
 Than e'er the world hath known shall rise 
 
 With flame of freedom in their souls, 
 And light of knowledge in their eyes. 
 
 They shall be gentle, brave, and strong 
 To spill no drop of blood, but dare 
 
 All that may plant man's lordship firm 
 
 On earth, and fire, and sea, and air. 
 
 107
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Nation with nation, land with land, 
 Unarmed shall live as comrades free; 
 
 In every heart and brain shall throb 
 The pulse of one fraternity. 
 
 New arts shall bloom of loftier mould, 
 And mightier music thrill the skies, 
 
 And every life shall be a song, 
 When all the earth is paradise. 
 
 A. Symonds. 
 
 1 08
 
 THE GOOD CHEER PLEDGE 
 
 To promote Happiness, Efficiency, and Civic Wel- 
 fare, I sincerely promise that wherever I am 
 
 I will talk Health instead of sickness. 
 I will talk Prosperity instead of failure. 
 I will carry Good News instead of bad news. 
 I will tell the Cheerful Tale instead of the sad tale. 
 I will mention my Blessings instead of my burdens. 
 I will speak of the Sunshine of yesterday and to- 
 morrow instead of the clouds of to-day. 
 I will Encourage instead of criticise. 
 I will be a Friend to every one. 
 
 These tonics taken regularly in large, Allopathic 
 doses, produce the following results : 
 
 They open the windows of the soul. 
 
 They strengthen the heart-action. 
 
 They purify the mental atmosphere. 
 
 They relax nerve-tension. 
 
 They increase the circulation of the blood. 
 
 They eliminate poison from the system. 
 
 They improve the appetite. 
 
 They aid digestion. 
 
 They tone up the physical vitality. 
 
 The treatment is as free as the Pure Air, the Blue 
 Sky, and the Sunshine.
 
 I WILL TALK HEALTH INSTEAD 
 OF SICKNESS 
 
 "A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market*
 
 WILL TALK HEALTH INSTEAD 
 OF SICKNESS 
 
 She always is ailing, ne'er calls herself well, 
 
 And never is happy unless she can tell 
 
 To all whom she meets, how each ailment befell. 
 
 When she lies down at night, she can feel her 
 
 heart beat, 
 
 And at morn she is troubled with very cold feet ; 
 And her stomach feels gone if she only could 
 
 eat! 
 
 Her liver is worse than no liver at all; 
 And shivers go o'er her ; she feels her flesh crawl ; 
 And her head but that came, when a child, 
 from a fall. 
 
 Then her nerve* ; here her feelings no words can 
 
 express ! 
 
 Such awful sensations, such fearful distress, 
 Half her suffering no one but the nervous could 
 
 guess! 
 
 "3
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Come weal or woe, whatever betide, 
 
 She ne'er is quite free from a pain in her side ; 
 
 And a curve in her spine is her joy and her pride. 
 
 Earth, robed in its beauty, allures her in vain ; 
 She feels so to dread a return of her pain ; 
 She thinks she will send for the doctor again. 
 
 Above bends the sky, and there rises the hill; 
 Beyond is the river, beside it the mill; 
 But her only thought is when she takes the next 
 pill. 
 
 Bright clouds float in silence and beauty along; 
 Sweet birds, glad of heart, fill the air with their 
 
 song; 
 But she sees not, she hears not her throat feels 
 
 all wrong. 
 
 You tell her a story, you bring her a book, 
 You show her a picture and beg she will look, 
 Ah, no ! She must first tell you " how she was 
 took." 
 
 Her mind is so bent on " enjoying poor health/' 
 And of direful symptoms she has such a wealth, 
 That you cannot divert her, not even by stealth. 
 
 But over, and over, and over again, 
 
 With thoughts ever fixed in the same gloomy 
 
 train, 
 
 She talks of her ills, and her pills, and her pain. 
 
 114
 
 I WILL TALK HEALTH INSTEAD OF 
 SICKNESS 
 
 And 'tis feared when she reaches that beautiful 
 
 shore, 
 Where sorrow, and sickness, and pain are no 
 
 more, 
 
 My lady will sigh for " the sweet days of yore." 
 
 Christine Miller. 
 
 Talk health ! The dreary, never changing tale 
 Of mortal maladies is worn and stale, 
 You cannot charm or interest or please, 
 By harping on that minor chord, disease. 
 Say you are well, or all is well with you, 
 And God will hear your words and make them 
 true. 
 
 r-//o Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 What volumes of potential energy are 
 wasted, and far worse, in negative and discord- 
 ant mental activities! We are not thinking 
 for ourselves, but for the world. With the 
 shuttle of thought in the loom of mind, we are 
 weaving the multi-colored fabric of conditions, 
 and these not merely immaterial, but to be out- 
 wardly actualized and manifested. If one in 
 
 "5
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 his own soul strikes the discordant notes of 
 anger, envy, avarice, selfishness, or even those 
 seemingly more harmless ones of simple fear, 
 weakness, grief, pessimism, or depression, he 
 is creating and vibrating those conditions far 
 and near, thereby stirring the corresponding 
 chords in other souls into sympathetic activity. 
 The sphere of outward action is limited, while 
 that of thought is boundless. Mere doing 
 makes ephemeral reputation, while quality of 
 thinking determines, or rather is, vital char- 
 acter. 
 
 ! -Henry Wood. 
 
 When we learn that it is a matter of 
 economy never to rehearse the symptoms of 
 disease, never to get angry, never to cherish 
 ill-will, revengeful or unforgiving thoughts, 
 never to make enemies, but always to be char- 
 itable and friendly, kind, good-natured, and 
 hopeful, we shall not need to be told how we 
 caused his own dis-ease; nor shall we need to 
 say, " I will not think these wrong thoughts 
 any more," for they will die out of themselves. 
 
 Horatio W. Dresser. 
 116
 
 I WILL TALK HEALTH INSTEAD OF 
 SICKNESS 
 
 You are continually building, and so ex- 
 ternalizing in your body, conditions most akin 
 to the thoughts and emotions you entertain. 
 And not only are you building from within, 
 but you are also continually drawing from 
 without, forces of a kindred nature. Your 
 particular kind of thought connects you with a 
 similar order of thought from without. If it 
 is bright, hopeful, cheerful, you connect your- 
 self with a current of thought of this nature. 
 If it is sad, fearing, despondent, then this is the 
 order of thought you connect yourself with. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Trine. 
 
 Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheer- 
 fulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be 
 lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round cheer- 
 fully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness 
 were already there. If such conduct does not 
 make you soon feel cheerful, nothing else on 
 that occasion can. So to feel brave, act as if 
 we were brave, use all our will to that end, and 
 a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of 
 fear. ... To wrestle with a bad feeling 
 
 only pins our attention on it, and keeps it 
 
 117
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 still fastened in the mind: whereas, if we act as 
 if from some better feeling, the old bad feeling 
 soon folds its tent like an Arab, and silently 
 steals away. 
 
 William James. 
 
 I think we are too ready with complaint 
 
 In this fair world of God's. Had we no hope 
 Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope 
 Of yon gray blank of sky, we might be faint 
 To muse upon eternity's constraint 
 Round our aspirant souls. But since the scope 
 Must widen early, is it well to droop 
 For a few days, consumed in loss and taint? 
 O pusillanimous Heart, be comforted, 
 And like a cheerful traveler, take the road, 
 Singing beside the hedge. What if the bread 
 Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod 
 To meet the flints? At least it may be said, 
 " Because the way is short, I thank thee, God ! " 
 
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 BLUES AND BLUES 
 
 If you must sit high and sigh 
 
 And have the blues, 
 Why don't you try to realize 
 
 That there are sighs and sighs, 
 And Blues and Blues, 
 From which to choose? 
 118
 
 I WILL TALK HEALTH INSTEAD OF 
 SICKNESS 
 
 There are heavenly blues, and blue of 
 
 tranquil seas, 
 Both pleasant if you have them, pray 
 
 have these. 
 
 Annie 1+ Scull. 
 
 If the windows of your soul are dirty and 
 streaked, covered with matter foreign to them, 
 then the world as you look out of them will be 
 to you dirty and streaked and out of order. 
 Cease your complainings, however; keep your 
 pessimism, your " poor unfortunate me " to 
 yourself, lest you betray the fact that your 
 windows are badly in need of something. But 
 know that your friend, who keeps his windows 
 clean, that the Eternal Sun may illumine all 
 within and make visible all without, know 
 that he lives in a different world from yours. 
 
 Then go wash your windows, and instead of 
 longing for some other world, you will dis- 
 cover the wonderful beauties of this world ; and 
 if you don't find transcendent beauties on 
 every hand here, the chances are that you will 
 never find them anywhere. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Trine. 
 "9
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 To keep my health! 
 
 To do my work! 
 
 To live! 
 
 To see to it I grow and gain and give! 
 
 Never to look behind me for an hour ! 
 
 To wait in weakness and to walk in 
 
 power, 
 But always fronting forward to the 
 
 light, 
 Always, and always facing toward 
 
 the right, 
 Robbed, starved, defeated, fallen, 
 
 wide astray 
 
 On, with what strength I have ! 
 Back to the way ! 
 
 Charlotte Perkins Oilman. 
 
 The man who realizes that he has become or 
 is becoming a victim of worry must be advised 
 consciously and resolutely to direct himself to 
 the question of his sleep. It is safe to say that 
 the worrying man cannot sleep too much, and, 
 as a rule, he sleeps too little. If he would be 
 cured, then, he must attend to this matter. 
 Insomnia may well be the efficient cause of 
 worry in his case, and to remove the efficient 
 cause is to cure the disease. If the doctor's 
 help is necessary it must be obtained. There 
 
 120
 
 I WILL TALK HEALTH INSTEAD OF 
 SICKNESS 
 
 are very few cases of insomnia that cannot be 
 relieved. . . . The man who sleeps well 
 is, ... a practical optimist, whilst the 
 victim of insomnia is, ... a practical 
 pessimist a man who worries. 
 
 C. W. Saleeby, M. D. 
 
 Just as Nature tends toward health, Nature 
 tends toward rest toward the right kind of 
 rest; and if we have lost the true knack of 
 resting we can just as surely find it as a sun- 
 flower can find the sun. . . . We can do 
 it best by keeping our minds concentrated on 
 something simple and quiet and wholesome. 
 For instance, you feel tired and rushed and 
 you have half an hour in which to rest and get 
 rid of the rush. Suppose you lie down on the 
 bed and imagine yourself a turbulent lake 
 after a storm. The storm is dying down, dy- 
 ing down, until by and by there is no wind, 
 only little dashing waves that the wind has left. 
 Then the waves quiet down steadily, more and 
 more, until finally they are only ripples on the 
 water. Then no ripples, but the water is as 
 still as glass. The sun goes down. The sky 
 
 121
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 glows. Twilight comes. One star appears, 
 and green banks and trees and sky and stars 
 are all reflected in the quiet mirror of the lake, 
 and you are the lake, and you are quiet and 
 refreshed and rested and ready to get up and 
 go on with your work to go on with it, too, 
 better and more quietly than when you left it. 
 
 Annie Payson Call. 
 
 The best part of health is fine disposition. 
 It is more essential than talent, even in the 
 works of talent. Nothing will supply the 
 want of sunshine to peaches, and, to make 
 knowledge valuable, you must have the cheer- 
 fulness of wisdom. Whenever you are sin- 
 cerely pleased, you are nourished. The joy of 
 the spirit indicates its strength. All healthy 
 things are sweet-tempered. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.' 
 
 122
 
 I WILL TALK PROSPERITY IN- 
 STEAD OF FAILURE 
 
 "Anxiety never yet successfully bridged over any chasm.*
 
 I WILL TALK PROSPERITY IN- 
 STEAD OF FAILURE 
 
 Yes, if you're a tramp in tatters, 
 While the blue sky bends above 
 
 You've got nearly all that matters 
 You've got God, and God is love. 
 
 r-Robert W. Strvice. 
 
 Plant flowers in the soul's front yard, 
 Set out new shade and blossom trees, 
 
 An' let the soul once froze an' hard, 
 Sprout crocuses of new idies. 
 
 Yes, clean yer house, an* clean yer shed, 
 
 An' clean yer barn in ev'ry part; 
 But brush the cobwebs from yer head, 
 An' sweep the snow banks from yer heart. 
 
 Sam Walter Foss* 
 125
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Say! you've struck a heap of trouble 
 
 Bust in business, lost your wife ; 
 No one cares a cent about you, 
 
 You don't care a cent for life; 
 Hard luck has of hope bereft you, 
 
 Health is failing, wish you'd die 
 Why, you've still the sunshine left you 
 
 And the big, blue sky. 
 
 Robert W. Service. 
 
 MATILDA AND NATURE'S SPRING 
 CLEANING 
 
 I find the world outside my house is often all 
 
 awry, 
 But my household is a model to direct the planet 
 
 by, 
 
 Excepting in spring cleaning time my home is 
 
 then destroyed 
 'Tis made a primal chaos then, without a form 
 
 or void. 
 
 'Tis scoured from the rafter to the bottom cellar 
 
 stair; 
 And I leave behind all hope whene'er I enter 
 
 there ; 
 For the wash-brush, like a whirlwind, devastates 
 
 the peaceful scene, 
 For Matilda is the cleanest of the cleanest of the 
 
 clean. 
 
 126
 
 I WILL TALK PROSPERITY INSTEAD OF 
 FAILURE 
 
 But Matilda's just like Nature, for early every 
 
 spring 
 Does Nature get her scrub brush out, her duster 
 
 and her wing; 
 With her mighty soap and bucket does she travel 
 
 all about, 
 And swashes through the universe and cleans 
 
 the old thing out. 
 
 And she puts up new lace curtains in the win- 
 dows of the sky, 
 
 Made of white cloud, mixed with sunshine, float- 
 ing, filmy tapestry, 
 
 When the gorgeous sun at sunset finds the clouds 
 about him curled, 
 
 And he sticks his jewelled hairpin through the 
 back-hair of the world. 
 
 And she takes her dull brown carpet and she rips 
 
 it from the hills, 
 And she sprays her floors with showers till they 
 
 soak through to the sills ; 
 Then her tuliped carpet, with its background of 
 
 bright green 
 Spreads she, rich as the floor-mat 'neath the high 
 
 throne of a queen. 
 
 So, Matilda, whisk your wash-rag ; it is music to 
 
 my ears, 
 And it beats with perfect rhythm to the music of 
 
 the spheres, 
 
 137
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Reach your long brush for the cobwebs, swing it 
 
 ever high and higher, 
 A baton that beats the measure for the mighty 
 
 Cosmic Choir. 
 
 You are cleaning house with Nature; you are 
 
 stepping to the march, 
 To which the planet legions trail across the 
 
 starry arch, 
 Though the table's on the bureau, and the whisk 
 
 broom does not cease, 
 I eat my supper standing, lapped in universal 
 
 peace. 
 
 Sam Walter Fotf. 
 
 Sky so blue it makes you wonder 
 
 If it's heaven shining through; 
 Earth so smiling 'way out yonder, 
 
 Sun so bright it dazzles you; 
 Birds a-singing, flowers a-flinging 
 
 All their fragrance on the breeze; 
 Dancing shadows, green, still meadows 
 
 Don't you mope, you've still got these. 
 
 Robert W. Service. 
 
 128
 
 TO THE TERRESTRIAL GLOBE 
 
 Roll on, thou ball, roll on! 
 Through pathless realms of space 
 
 Roll on! 
 
 What though I'm in a sorry case? 
 What though I cannot meet my bills? 
 What though I suffer toothache's ills? 
 What though I swallow countless pills? 
 Never you mind ! 
 Roll on! 
 
 Roll on, thou ball, roll on ! 
 Through seas of inky air 
 
 Roll on! 
 
 It's true I've got no shirt to wear, 
 It's true my butcher's bill is due, 
 It's true my prospects all look blue- 
 But don't let that unsettle you ! 
 Never you mind ! 
 Roll on! 
 (It rolls on.) 
 
 W. S. Gilbert. 
 
 FAILURE 
 
 What is a failure? It's only a spur 
 To a man who receives it right, 
 
 And it makes the spirit within him stir 
 To go in once more and fight. 
 
 If you never have failed, it's an even guess 
 
 You never have won a high success. 
 129
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 What is a miss? It's a practice shot 
 Which we often must make to enter 
 
 The list of those who can hit the spot 
 Of the bull's-eye in the centre. 
 
 If you never have sent your bullet wide, 
 
 You never have put a mark inside. 
 
 What is a knock-down? A count of ten 
 Which a man may take for a rest. 
 
 It will give him a chance to come up again 
 And do his particular best. 
 
 If you've never been bumped in a rattling go, 
 
 You never have come to the scratch, I know ! 
 
 Edmund Vance Cooke. 
 
 IT COULDN'T BE DONE 
 
 Somebody said that it couldn't be done, 
 
 But he with a chuckle, replied 
 That maybe it couldn't, but he would be one 
 
 Who wouldn't say so till he tried. 
 So he buckled right in, with a trace of a grin 
 
 On his face. If he worried he hid it. 
 He started to sing as he tackled the thing 
 
 That couldn't be done, and he did it. 
 
 Somebody scoffed : " Oh, you'll never do that; 
 
 At least no one has ever done it." 
 But he took off his coat and he took off his hat, 
 
 And the first thing we knew he'd begun it; 
 130
 
 I WILL TALK PROSPERITY INSTEAD OF 
 FAILURE 
 
 With the lift of his chin, and a bit of a grin, 
 Without any doubting or quiddit; 
 
 He started to sing as he tackled the thing 
 That couldn't be done, and he did it. 
 
 There are thousands to tell you it cannot be 
 
 done, 
 
 There are thousands to prophesy failure, 
 There are thousands to point out to you, one 
 
 by one, 
 
 The dangers that wait to assail you ; 
 But just buckle right in with a bit of a grin, 
 
 Then take off your coat and go to it; 
 Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing 
 That " cannot be done," and you'll do it ! 
 
 Edgar A. Guest. 
 
 THE WAY TO VICTORY 
 
 Say " I will ! " an' then stick to it,- 
 Yes, sir, that's the way to do it. 
 Nothin's ever won, I guess, 
 Worth the wishin' fer, unless 
 One is willin' fer to work, 
 Hain't no prizes fer a shirk, 
 Fer the Lord, er so they say, 
 Hates a quitter, anyway. 
 
 S'posin' 'at a settin' hen 
 
 'D set a little while, an' then 
 
 Gallivant erround until 
 
 All her eggs had got a chill;
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 S'pose she'd ever hatch a thing 
 Underneath her floppin' wing? 
 She won't do that way, and hence, 
 Hens, I say, have common sense. 
 
 Ez a boy I had to do 
 Lots o' things I hated to; 
 Had to work an old concern, 
 Namely, the old dasher churn; 
 Didn't never dast to pause 
 In my path o' duty, cause 
 Knowed 'at, if I stopped to dream, 
 Butter'd all go back to cream. 
 
 If a ship was 'lowed to go 
 Every way the winds 'd blow, 
 Wonder if 't would get erround 
 To a harbor safe and sound? 
 Guess it's best fer ship or man 
 To be guided by a plan. 
 Choose yer task, an' whisper still, 
 Win I must, an' win I will ! 
 
 "L. A. W. Bulletin: 1 
 
 COURAGE 
 
 Because I hold it sinful to despond, 
 And will not let the bitterness of life 
 
 Blind me with burning tears, but look beyond 
 Its tumult and its strife; 
 132
 
 I WILL TALK PROSPERITY INSTEAD OF 
 FAILURE 
 
 Because I lift my head above the mist, 
 
 Where the sun shines and the broad breezes 
 blow, 
 
 By every ray and every raindrop kissed 
 That God's love doth bestow; 
 
 Think you I find no bitterness at all? 
 
 No burden to be borne, like Christian's pack? 
 Think you there are no ready tears to fall 
 
 Because I keep them back? 
 
 Why should I hug life's ills with cold reserve, 
 To curse myself and all who love me? Nay! 
 
 A thousand times more good than I deserve 
 God gives me every day. 
 
 And each one of these rebellious tears 
 
 Kept bravely back, He makes a rainbow shine; 
 
 Grateful I take His slightest gift, no fears 
 Nor doubts are mine. 
 
 Dark skies must clear, and when the clouds are 
 past, 
 
 One golden day redeems a weary year; 
 Patient I listen, sure that sweet at last 
 
 Will sound His voice of cheer. 
 
 Then vex me not with chiding. Let me be. 
 
 I must be glad and grateful to the end. 
 I grudge you not your cold and darkness, me 
 
 The powers of light befriend. 
 
 Celia Thaxttr. 
 '33
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 NEVER LET GO 
 
 Oh, do not let go and do not give up 
 
 And do not let down it is wrong! 
 There is always a chance of your winning the 
 cup, 
 
 There is always the need of a song. 
 Never let go, but cling to the end, 
 
 And never let down lift your eyes 
 To the hopes that still over us lovingly bend, 
 
 To the light that is filling the skies ! 
 
 What odds that the struggle is bitter and black, 
 
 That the striving has seemed all in vain; 
 Never let go and go tumbling back, 
 
 There's a chance for us all once again. 
 No matter how weary, how troubled and worn, 
 
 How futile the struggle may seem, 
 There is always a bit of good luck in the morn, 
 
 There is always a light in the dream ! 
 
 Oh, do not let go take another firm hold, 
 
 And never go down if you can: 
 Life's prizes are sweet, but there's far better gold 
 
 In the spirit of being a man. 
 So stick to the struggle, and trust, and dig on; 
 
 There's a chance for you yet, you will see : 
 The blackest of nights brings the glow of the 
 dawn 
 
 And the luck that may set us all free. 
 
 Bentztown Bard. 
 
 Copyrighted by Southern Press Syndicate. 
 '34
 
 I WILL TALK PROSPERITY INSTEAD OF 
 FAILURE 
 
 You are a ruined man, or you are stricken by 
 a great bereavement, or again, you see the 
 fruit of toilsome years perish before your eyes. 
 You cannot rebuild your fortune, raise the 
 dead, recover your lost toil, and in the face of 
 the inevitable, your arms drop. Then you 
 neglect to care for your person, to keep your 
 house, to guide your children. All this is par- 
 donable, and how easy to understand! But 
 it is exceedingly dangerous. To fold one's 
 hands and let things take their course, is to 
 transform one evil into worse. You who think 
 that you have nothing left to lose, will by that 
 very thought lose what you have. Gather up 
 the fragments that remain to you, and keep 
 them with scrupulous care. In good time this 
 little that is yours will be your consolation. 
 The effort made will come to your relief, as the 
 effort missed will turn against you. If nothing 
 but a branch is left for you to cling to, cling to 
 that branch; and if you stand alone in defense 
 of a losing cause, do not throw down your 
 arms to join the rout. After the deluge a few 
 survivors repeopled the earth. The future 
 sometimes rests in a single life as truly as life 
 sometimes hangs by a thread. 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 '35
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 The Superior people are never BITTER: If 
 you feel you are a failure, that the world is 
 going to the dogs, that all men are liars, and 
 that there are no good women, it is all quite 
 human, that is the tendency it is the general 
 slump of the cheap and ordinary mind. 
 
 Pessimism is the philosophy of vulgarity. 
 It amounts to dressing up in fine phrases the 
 cowardice of the spirit. 
 
 Maeterlinck says that to the hero there is 
 no tragedy. No matter how the world and 
 events conspire against him, he rises above 
 them. Friends may betray, and authorities 
 may tyrannize, and the wicked may triumph, 
 but it all cannot touch him. 
 
 Take, for instance, the death of Socrates. 
 As we read the story of how he was poisoned, 
 like a rat in a hole, of his conversation with his 
 friends as his hour approached, and catch the 
 spirit of the old hero, we are surprised to find 
 we are not sorry for him ; we envy him ; we are 
 sorry for the villains who did him to death. 
 
 So we do not pity Jesus on Calvary. We 
 admire and wonder. The more the ferocity 
 and ingratitude and injustice of men beat 
 upon Him, the higher burns the flame of His 
 
 '3*
 
 I WILL TALK PROSPERITY INSTEAD OF 
 FAILURE 
 
 imperial spirit. We do not look down upon 
 Him in compassion, we look up and adore. 
 
 Neither do we pity them at Marathon, nor 
 those others at Balaklava, nor the marines in 
 the Wood of Belleau. Deep in our hearts we 
 wish we had been there, or had been great 
 enough to want to be there. 
 
 Do you, in your little trials, despair and 
 complain? Do you pity yourself, want to go 
 out in the garden and eat worms, and talk 
 theatrically of wondering why you were born, 
 and wish you were dead? Such sentiments 
 are as common as dust in the road, ragweeds 
 in the cow pasture, and empty tin cans in the 
 alley. Then you are just plain Common. 
 And you'd better begin a course of discipline. 
 
 But when all things combine to crush and 
 humiliate you, when failure leers at you, and 
 betrayal besmirches you, do you smile and say? 
 
 " In the fell clutch of circumstance 
 
 I have not winced nor cried aloud ; 
 Beneath the bludgeonings of chance 
 My head is bloody but unbowed.'* 
 
 Then cheer up, friend. You belong. 
 You're a thoroughbred. You have a seat in 
 the real House of Lords of this humanity. 
 
 Dr. Frank Crane. 
 137
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Fortunately, however, the mind takes much 
 longer to grow old than the body, and when 
 the sports of youth or even of middle age fail, 
 a man may turn to one or other of a thousand 
 hobbies, and find in them that mental interest 
 which will give him every day a holiday or 
 period of freedom from worry. Let the man 
 beware, then, who too thoughtlessly permits all 
 his intellectual interests to atrophy, save those 
 which are concerned with his work. Do not 
 let, him be caught saying, " I have no time for 
 muMc nowadays," or for any of a thousand 
 other things. It is an imperative necessity for 
 the average modern man, and is of the nature 
 of an investment for coming years, that he 
 shall persistently cultivate some other mental 
 interest than that with which the worry of the 
 struggle -for -existence is associated. Such 
 a mental interest, though apparently not 
 utilitarian, and though not cultivated for any 
 utilitarian purpose, will yet prove to be a valu- 
 able weapon in the struggle-for-existence it- 
 self. 
 
 C. W. Saleeby, M. D. 
 
 138
 
 I WILL TALK PROSPERITY INSTEAD OF 
 FAILURE 
 
 I should like to speak of a class that to-day 
 it is thought quite fitting to treat with the ut- 
 most one-sidedness. I mean the rich. Some 
 people think the last word is said when they 
 have stigmatized that infamy, capital. For 
 them, all who possess great fortunes are mon- 
 sters forged with the blood of the miserable. 
 Others, not so declamatory, persist, however, 
 in confounding riches with egoism and in- 
 sensibility. Justice should be visited on these 
 errors, be they involuntary or calculated. No 
 doubt there are rich men who concern them- 
 selves with nobody else, and others who do 
 good only with ostentation; indeed, we know 
 it too well. But does their inhumanity or 
 hypocrisy take away the value of the good that 
 others do, and that they often hide with a mod- 
 esty so perfect? 
 
 Charles Wagner. 
 
 It is astonishing how bugbears side-step 
 when one looks them in the face. Such looks 
 are not denied the blind. We physically 
 sightless can outstare a bugbear with the keen- 
 est-sighted of you all. When a bugbear faces 
 you, whether you are physically blind or 
 
 139
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 physically seeing, glare at him with the eyes 
 of a brave soul and make a rush for him. He 
 will turn tail and run ! 
 
 Helen Keller. 
 
 Copyrighted by Edward Marshall Syndicate. 
 (From an Interview.) 
 
 ONE DAY AT A TIME 
 
 One day at a time! That's all it can be; 
 
 No faster than that is the hardest fate; 
 And days have their limits, however we 
 
 Begin them too early and stretch them too 
 late. 
 
 One day at a time \ 
 
 It's a wholesome rhyme! 
 
 A good one to live by, 
 A day at a time. 
 
 One day at a time ! Every heart that aches, 
 Knowing only too well how long they can 
 seem; 
 
 But it's never to-day which the spirit breaks 
 It's the darkened future without a gleam. 
 
 One day at a time ! When joy is at height 
 Such joy as the heart can never forget 
 
 And pulses are throbbing with wild delight, 
 How hard to remember that suns must set. 
 140
 
 I WILL TALK PROSPERITY INSTEAD OF 
 FAILURE 
 
 One day at a time ! But a single day, 
 Whatever its load, whatever its length; 
 
 And that's a bit of precious Scripture to say 
 That according to each shall be our strength. 
 
 j 
 One day at a time ! 'Tis the whole of life ; 
 
 All sorrow, all joy, are assured therein; 
 The bound of our purpose, our noblest strife 
 
 The one only countersign sure to win! 
 
 One day at a time ! 
 
 It's a wholesome rhyme! 
 
 A good one to live by, 
 A day at a time. 
 
 Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 THE WINNING WAY 
 
 If you put a little lovin' into all the work you do, 
 And a little bit of gladness, and a little bit of you, 
 And a little bit of sweetness, and a little bit of 
 
 song, 
 Not a day will seem too toilsome ; not a day will 
 
 seem too long; 
 And your work will be attractive, and the world 
 
 will stop to look, 
 And the world will see a sweetness, like the 
 
 tinklin' of a brook, 
 
 141
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 In the finished job ; and then the world will turn 
 
 to look at you 
 With a world's appreciation of the thing you've 
 
 found to do. 
 
 Just a little bit of lovin', and a little bit of song, 
 And some pride to sort of make it straight and 
 
 true and clean and strong; 
 And the work that you're a-doin', pretty near 
 
 before you know, 
 Will have set the world a-talkin', and the little 
 
 winds that blow 
 Will bring echoes of it to you, and you'll see that 
 
 you have done 
 More than you had dreamed or hoped for when 
 
 the task was first begun; 
 And you'll find the bit of lovin' you have put into 
 
 the same 
 Has come back to you in lovin', and come back 
 
 to you in fame. 
 
 Them that strive for fame shall miss it; and 
 that's what they ought to do ; 
 
 But if you put some gladness, and if you put 
 some of you 
 
 In the task that is before you, and you put a bit 
 of pride 
 
 Into it, and you go at it glad of heart and eager- 
 eyed, 
 
 You will find the world is turnin' pretty soon to 
 look your way, 
 
 And you'll find that there's a sweetness in the 
 tasks of every day; 
 142
 
 I WILL TALK PROSPERITY INSTEAD OF 
 FAILURE 
 
 And the world will see your work and pretty 
 
 soon will speak your name; 
 And you'll find you have found lovin* and you'll 
 
 find you have found fame. 
 
 Houston Post. 
 
 wa 
 
 Try the rough water as well as the Smooth. 
 Rough water can teach lessons worth know- 
 ing. 
 
 c-Ralph Waldo Emerson.
 
 I WILL CARRY GOOD NEWS IN- 
 STEAD OF BAD NEWS 
 
 "Do not leave the sky out of your landscape*
 
 I WILL CARRY GOOD NEWS IN- 
 STEAD OF BAD NEWS 
 
 It was only a glad " Good Morning " 
 As she passed along the way ; 
 
 But it spread the morning's glory 
 Over the livelong day. 
 
 Perry,. 
 
 Touch your lips with gladness and go singing on 
 
 your way, 
 
 Smiles will strangely lighten every duty; 
 Just a little word of cheer may span a sky of gray 
 With hope's own heaven-tinted bow of beauty. 
 Wear a pleasant face wherein shall shine a joyful 
 
 heart, 
 
 As shines the sun, the happy fields adorning; 
 To every care-beclouded life some ray of light 
 
 impart 
 
 And touch your lips with gladness every morn- 
 ing. 
 
 Nixon Waterman. 
 
 147
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 GLADNESS OF MORNING 
 
 To hear the lark begin his flight, 
 And singing, startle the dull Night 
 From his watch-tower in the skies, 
 Till the dappled Dawn doth rise; 
 Then to come in spite of sorrow, 
 And at my window bid good-morrow 
 Through the sweet brier, or the vine 
 Or the twisted Eglantine. 
 
 John Milton. 
 
 And I, too, sing the song of all creation, 
 A brave sky and a glad wind blowing by, 
 A clear trail and an hour for meditation, 
 A long day and the joy to make it fly, 
 A hard task and the muscle to achieve it, 
 A fierce noon and a well-contented gloam, 
 A good strife and no great regret to leave it, 
 A still night and the far red lights of home. 
 
 H. H. Bashford. 
 
 148
 
 I WILL CARRY GOOD NEWS INSTEAD OF 
 BAD NEWS 
 
 Live in the sunshine, don't live in the gloom, 
 Carry some gladness the world to illume, 
 Live in the brightness, and take this to heart ; 
 The world will seem gayer if you'll do your 
 
 part, 
 
 Live on the housetop, not down in the cell ; 
 Open-air Christians live nobly and well. 
 Live where the joys are, and, scorning defeat, 
 Have a good-morrow for all whom you meet. 
 Live as a victor, and triumphing go 
 Through this queer world, beating down every 
 
 foe, 
 
 Live in the sunshine, God meant it for you ! 
 Live as the robins, and sing the day through. 
 
 Margaret Songster. 
 
 THY MISSION 
 
 " There's never a rose in all the world 
 
 But makes some green spray sweeter; 
 There's never a wind in all the sky 
 But makes some bird wing fleeter; 
 
 " There's never a star but brings to heaven 
 
 Some silver radiance tender, 
 And never a rosy cloud but helps 
 To crown the sunset splendor; 
 
 " No robin but may thrill some heart, 
 
 His dawnlight gladness voicing; 
 God gives us all some small sweet way 
 To set the world rejoicing." 
 149
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 JUST WHERE THOU ART 
 
 Just where thou art lift up thy voice, 
 
 And sing the song that stirs thy heart; 
 Reach forth thy strong and eager hand 
 
 To lift, to save, just where thou art. 
 Just where thou standest light thy lamp, 
 
 'Tis dark to others as to thee; 
 Their ways are hedged by unseen thorns, 
 
 Their burdens fret as thine fret thee. 
 
 Out yonder, in the broad, full glare 
 
 Of many lamps thine own might pale; 
 And thy sweet song amid the roar 
 
 Of many voices slowly fail; 
 While these thy kindred wandered on, 
 
 Uncheered, unlighted, to the end. 
 Near to thy hand thy mission lies, 
 
 Wherever sad hearts need a friend." 
 
 CHRISTMAS BELLS 
 
 I heard the bells on Christmas Day 
 Their old, familiar carols play, 
 
 And wild and sweet 
 
 The words repeat 
 Of " Peace on earth, good will to men." 
 
 And thought how as the day had come, 
 The belfries of all Christendom 
 
 Now roll along 
 
 The unbroken song 
 
 Of " Peace on earth, good will to men." 
 150
 
 I WILL CARRY GOOD NEWS INSTEAD OF 
 BAD NEWS 
 
 Till ringing, singing on its way, 
 
 The world revolved from night to day, 
 
 A voice, a chime, 
 
 A chant sublime, 
 Of " Peace on earth, good will to men." 
 
 But in despair I bowed my head 
 " There is no peace on earth," I said: 
 For hate is strong 
 And mocks the song 
 Of " Peace on earth, good will to men." 
 
 Then pealed the bells, more loud and deep, 
 " God is not dead; nor doth He sleep ! 
 The wrong shall fail; 
 The right prevail, 
 With peace on earth, good will to men." 
 
 Henry, W. Longfellow. 
 
 Ring out the old, ring in the new, 
 Ring, happy bells, across the snow: 
 The year is going, let him go; 
 
 Ring out the false, ring in the true. 
 
 Ring out the grief that saps the mind, 
 For those that here we see no more; 
 Ring out the feud of rich and poor, 
 
 Ring in redress to all mankind.
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Ring out old shapes of foul disease; 
 
 Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; 
 
 Ring out the thousand wars of old, 
 Ring in the thousand years of peace. 
 
 Ring in the valiant man and free, 
 The larger heart, the kindlier hand; 
 Ring out the darkness of the land, 
 
 Ring in the Christ that is to be. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson* 
 
 15*
 
 "If you have but a word of cheer 
 Speak it while I am alive to hear*
 
 I WILL TELL THE CHEERFUL 
 
 TALE INSTEAD OF THE 
 
 SAD TALE 
 
 It is easier to knock a man out with a joke 
 than with a fist-blow, especially if you haven't 
 much height and weight behind your fist. It 
 is the better way, too, for the joke doesn't hurt. 
 Instead of the other man's going in search of 
 an arnica bottle or a pistol or a policeman, he 
 generally hangs about with the hope of getting 
 another blow of the same sort. One needn't 
 be little to try it. Abraham Lincoln had a 
 fist almost as big as the hand of Providence, 
 and as long a reach as John L. Sullivan, but 
 he always used a joke instead, so men who 
 came to growl remained to laugh. 
 
 Marshall P. Wilder. 
 
 '55
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Strange as it may seem, it was an old Scotch 
 elder who said, " The want of a sense of humor 
 is the unpardonable sin." It is true that its 
 absence is almost a sin; for a man's attitude to- 
 wards life is not wholesome if he be without it. 
 And the humorless state is so hopeless as to be 
 almost unpardonable, the proverbial surgical 
 operation for the purpose of introducing a 
 joke into a hard head not yet having been in- 
 vented. It is an unpardonable sin; for life in 
 some of its aspects is a jest, and the only 
 righteous and rational attitude of human 
 beings towards life in many of its manifesta- 
 tions is deep, hearty laughter. The sense of 
 humor at its best is one of the deepest things 
 in life. It is a spiritual perception of the 
 vast, incongruous discrepancy which exists be- 
 tween things as they seem and things as they 
 really are. It is not, then, as is so generally 
 supposed, one of the superficial elements of 
 life. It is part of all that is healthiest and 
 noblest in humanity. 
 
 'John Edgar Park.
 
 I WILL TELL THE CHEERFUL TALE 
 INSTEAD OF THE SAD TALE 
 
 Talk happiness ! The world is sad enough 
 Without your woes. No path is wholly rough ; 
 Look for the places that are smooth and clear 
 And speak of those who rest the weary ear 
 Of earth, so hurt by one continuous strain 
 Of human discontent and grief and pain. 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 AT TABLE 
 
 You may breathe a pious blessing, 
 
 Over viands rich and good, 
 But a blessing with long faces 
 
 Won't assimilate your food; 
 While a meal of bread and herring, 
 
 With a glass of water clear, 
 Is a feast if it's accomp'nied, 
 
 With the blessing of good cheer. 
 
 Knowing something funny, tell it; 
 
 Something sad, forget to knell it; 
 
 Something hateful, quick dispel it; 
 At the table. 
 
 Elizabeth H. Francis. 
 
 Smile upon the troubled pilgrims 
 
 Whom you pass and meet; 
 Frowns are thorns, and smiles are 
 
 blossoms, 
 Oft to weary feet. 
 '57
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Do not make the way seem harder 
 
 By a sullen face; 
 Smile a little, smile a little, 
 
 Brighten up the place. 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 " How dismal you look ! " said a bucket to 
 his companion, as they were going to the well. 
 
 "Ah! " replied the other, " I was reflecting 
 on the uselessness of our being filled ; for let us 
 go away ever so full, we always come back 
 empty." 
 
 " Dear me, how strange to look at it in this 
 way! Now I enjoy the thought that however 
 empty we come, we always go away full." 
 
 The world doesn't want to know your strife, 
 
 The world doesn't want to hear your tale 
 
 Of loss and worry there's a life 
 
 Of sunshine in the dewy vale, 
 
 Of use and joy and love and cheer, 
 
 Of beauty and it wants to know 
 
 Not of the things that make you drear 
 
 But of the things that make you glow, 
 
 The hope, the trust, the cheerfulness 
 
 That comfort you and bless. 
 
 Bentztown Bard. 
 Copyrighted by Southern Press Syndicate.
 
 I WILL TELL THE CHEERFUL TALE 
 INSTEAD OF THE SAD TALE 
 
 TALK OF HAPPINESS 
 
 Grumble? No; what's the good? 
 If it availed, I would; 
 But it doesn't, not a bit, 
 Not it. 
 
 Laugh? Yes; why not? 
 'Tis better than crying, a lot; 
 We were made to be glad, 
 Not sad. 
 
 Sing? Why, yes, to be sure; 
 We shall better endure 
 If the heart is full of song 
 All day long. 
 
 Joan Somerset. 
 
 SOME OTHER DAY 
 
 Some other day take time to fret; 
 
 To-day much work is waiting, 
 And it will tax your wits to get 
 
 It done ; so cease berating 
 The evil chance that makes you strive, 
 
 With never cause for crowing, 
 Or else your worry will deprive 
 
 Your toil of any showing. 
 
 Some other day take time to grieve, 
 For joy is waiting near you ; 
 
 But if you moan 'twill surely leave, 
 And harpies come to jeer you.
 
 Put off the tears on with the smiles! 
 
 Give mirth its jolly inning, 
 And trust that in life's rich defiles, 
 
 You'll somewhere make a winning. 
 
 Some other day, if not to-day, 
 
 The cares that vex us sadly 
 Will in the distance fade away, 
 
 And peace dwell with us gladly; 
 So lift those drooping lips and eyes, 
 
 Good comrade, make profession 
 Of healthy faith be wise, be wise I 
 
 Keep up with the procession 1 " 
 
 "Are you worsted in the fight? 
 
 Laugh it off. 
 Are you cheated of your right? 
 
 Laugh it off. 
 
 Don't make tragedy of trifles, 
 Don't shoot butterflies with rifles- 
 Laugh it off. 
 
 " Does your work get into kinks? 
 
 Laugh it off. 
 Are you near all sorts of brinks? 
 
 Laugh it off. 
 
 If enjoyment you are after, 
 There's no receipt like laughter 
 Laugh it off." 
 1 60
 
 I WILL TELL THE CHEERFUL TALE 
 INSTEAD OF THE SAD TALE 
 
 " It's curious whut a sight o' good a little 
 
 thing will do; 
 How ye kin stop the fiercest storm when it 
 
 begins to brew, 
 An' take the sting from whut commenced 
 
 ter rankle when 'twas spoke 
 By keepin' still and treatin' it ez if it wuz a 
 
 joke ; 
 Ye'll find that ye kin fill a place with smiles 
 
 instead o' tears, 
 An' keep the sunshine gleamin' through the 
 
 shadows of the years 
 
 By jes' laughin'. 
 
 " Folks sometimes fails ter note the possibili- 
 ties that lie 
 
 In the way yer mouth is curvin' and the 
 twinkle in yer eye; 
 
 It ain't so much whut's said that hurts ez 
 whut ye thinks lies hid. 
 
 It ain't so much the doin' ez the way a thing 
 is did; 
 
 An' many a home's kep* happy an' contented 
 day by day, 
 
 An' like ez not a kingdom hez been rescued 
 from decay 
 
 By jes' laughin'." 
 
 161
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 THE SUNNY SIDE 
 
 If you've sowed a pansy seed 
 That sprang up a thorn, 
 
 And that made your finger bleed 
 Where the flesh was torn, 
 
 Drop no tears nor wailing sound, 
 
 Bind a bandage round the wound. 
 
 If you've said a kindly word, 
 
 Or one meant for such, 
 That when twisted seemed absurd, 
 
 Foolish overmuch, 
 Do not worry, make a rhyme, 
 Or keep silent, for a time. 
 
 If you've sung a little song 
 That you thought was sweet, 
 
 But have found that it was wrong, 
 Or in sense or feet, 
 
 Do not weep at what you've done, 
 
 Smile and sing a better one. 
 
 If you've had a happy thought, 
 
 Beautiful and good, 
 That, exprest, was good for naught, 
 
 Or misunderstood, 
 Do not fret yourself in vain, 
 Think your happy thought again. 
 162
 
 I WILL TELL THE CHEERFUL TALE 
 INSTEAD OF THE SAD TALE 
 
 Look upon the sunny side 
 
 Of each word and thought, 
 And you shall be satisfied, 
 
 You shall lack for naught. 
 Try to pick till life is done 
 Fruit that ripens in the sun. 
 
 Julia Harris May. 
 
 Let us sometimes live be it only for an 
 hour, and though we must lay all else aside to 
 make others smile. The sacrifice is only in 
 appearance; no one finds more pleasure for 
 himself than he who knows how, without osten- 
 tation, to give himself that he may procure for 
 those around him a moment of forgetfulness 
 and happiness. 
 
 When shall we be so simply and truly men 
 as not to obtrude our personal business and 
 distresses upon the people we meet socially? 
 May we not forget for an hour our preten- 
 sions, our strife, our distributions into sets and 
 cliques in short, our " parts," and become 
 as children once more, to laugh again, that 
 good laugh which does so much to make the 
 world better? 
 
 Charles Wagner.
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 We're weary a-walking the highway of life; 
 
 We're fretted and fluttered with worry and strife. 
 
 Let us drop by the wayside the heavy old load, 
 
 And rest at the inn at the turn of the road 
 Let us tarry awhile 
 At " The Sign of the Smile." 
 
 Let us tarry awhile at " The Sign of the Smile," 
 Forget all our griefs in the joys that beguile; 
 Let us pleasure the noon till it changes to night, 
 Then up with our loads and we'll find they are 
 light- 
 Let us tarry awhile 
 At " The Sign of the Smile." 
 
 164
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS 
 INSTEAD OF MY BURDENS 
 
 "Lest we forget*
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS 
 INSTEAD OF MY BURDENS 
 
 " When thou hast thanked thy God 
 
 For every blessing sent, 
 What time will then remain 
 For murmurs or lament? " 
 
 " For what you find in these sweet days 
 Depends on how you go about it; 
 A glad heart helps poor eyes to see 
 What brightest eyes can't see without it 
 
 " One child sees sunlit air and sky, 
 And bursting leaf buds round and ruddy; 
 Another looks at his own feet 
 And only sees that it is muddy." 
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER'S TRAGEDY 
 
 One day as I wandered, I heard a complain- 
 ing 
 And saw a poor woman, the picture of 
 
 gloom ; 
 She glanced at the mud on her doorsteps 
 
 ('twas raining), 
 
 And this was her wail as she wielded the 
 broom : 
 
 167
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 ' Oh, life is a toil, and love is a trouble, 
 
 And beauty will fade and riches will flee; 
 
 And pleasures they dwindle, and prices they 
 
 double 
 And nothing is what I could wish it to be. 
 
 ' There's too much of worriment goes to a 
 
 bonnet; 
 There's too much of ironing goes to a 
 
 shirt; 
 There's nothing that pays for the time you 
 
 waste on it; 
 
 There's nothing that lasts but trouble and 
 dirt. 
 
 ' In March it is mud; it's slush in December; 
 The mid-summer breezes are loaded with 
 
 dust; 
 
 In Fall, the leaves litter; in muggy Septem- 
 ber 
 
 The wall paper rots, and the candlesticks 
 rust. 
 
 ' There are worms in the cherries and slugs 
 
 in the roses, 
 And ants in the sugar, and mice in the 
 
 pies. 
 
 The rubbish of spiders no mortal supposes, 
 And ravaging roaches and damaging flies. 
 
 ' It's sweeping at six, and dusting at seven; 
 It's victuals at eight, and dishes at nine; 
 It's potting and panning from ten to eleven; 
 We scarce break our fast ere we plan how 
 to dine. 
 
 1 68
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 " ' With grease and with grime from corner to 
 
 center, 
 
 Forever at war and forever alert, 
 No rest for a day, lest the evening enter, 
 I spend my whole life in a struggle with 
 dirt. 
 
 " * Last night in my dreams, I was stationed 
 
 forever 
 On a bare little isle in the midst of the 
 
 sea; 
 
 My one chance of life was a ceaseless en- 
 deavor 
 
 To sweep off the waves ere they swept 
 over me. 
 
 " ' Alas, 'twas no dream ! Again I behold it ! 
 
 I yield; I am helpless my fate to avert! ' 
 She rolled down her sleeves, her apron she 
 
 folded, 
 
 Then lay down and died, and was buried 
 in dirt" 
 
 EXTRACT FROM CAPTAIN STORM- 
 FIELD'S VISIT TO HEAVEN 
 
 We begun to meet swarms of folks who 
 were coming back. Some had harps and noth- 
 ing else; some had hymn-books and nothing 
 
 else; some had nothing at all; all of them 
 
 169
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 looked meek and uncomfortable; one young 
 fellow hadn't anything left but his halo, and 
 he was carrying that in his hand; all of a sud- 
 den he offered it to me and says: 
 
 " Will you hold it for me a minute? " 
 
 Then he disappeared in the crowd. I went 
 on. A woman asked me to hold her palm 
 branch, and then she disappeared. A girl got 
 me to hold her harp for her, and by George, 
 she disappeared; and so on and so on, till I 
 was about loaded down to the guards. Then 
 comes a smiling old gentleman and asked me 
 to hold his things. I swabbed off the perspira- 
 tion and says, pretty tart: 
 
 " I'll have to get you to excuse me, my 
 friend, I ain't no hat-rack." 
 
 About this time I begun to run across piles 
 of those traps, lying in the road. I just 
 quietly dumped my extra cargo along with 
 them. I looked around, and, Peters, that 
 whole nation that was following me were 
 loaded down the same as I'd been. The return 
 crowd had got them to hold their things a 
 minute, you see. They all dumped their 
 loads, too, and we went on. 
 
 When I found myself perched on a cloud, 
 170
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 with a million other people, I never felt so 
 good in my life. Says I, " Now this is ac- 
 cording to the promises; I've been having my 
 doubts, but now I am in heaven, sure enough." 
 I gave my palm branch a wave or two, for luck, 
 and then I tautened uo my harp-strings and 
 struck in. Well, Pet or;, you can't imagine 
 anything like the row we made. It was grand 
 to listen to, and made a body thrill all over, 
 but there was considerable many tunes going 
 on at once, and that was a drawback to the 
 harmony, you understand; and then there was 
 a lot of Injun tribes, and they kept up such 
 another war-whooping that they kind of took 
 the tuck out of the music. By and by I quit 
 performing, and judged I'd take a rest. There 
 was quite a nice mild old gentleman sitting 
 next me, and I noticed he didn't take a hand ; 
 I encouraged him, but he said he was naturally 
 bashful, and was afraid to try before so many 
 people. By and by the old gentleman said 
 he never could seem to enjoy music somehow. 
 The fact was, I was beginning to feel the same 
 way; but I didn't say anything. Him and I 
 had a considerable long silence then, but of 
 
 course it warn't noticeable in that place. After 
 
 171
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 about sixteen or seventeen hours, during which 
 I played and sung a little, now and then 
 always the same tune, because I didn't know 
 any other I laid down my harp and begun 
 to fan myself with my palm branch. Then 
 we both got to sighing pretty regular. Fi- 
 nally, says he: 
 
 " Don't you know any tune but the one 
 you've been pegging at all day? " 
 
 " Not another blessed one," says I. 
 
 " Don't you reckon you could learn another 
 one? " says he. 
 
 "Never," says I; "I've tried to, but I 
 couldn't manage it." 
 
 " It's a long time to hang to the one 
 eternity, you know." 
 
 " Don't break my heart," says I; " I'm get- 
 ting low-spirited enough already." 
 
 After another long silence, says he: 
 
 "Are you glad to be here? " 
 
 Says I, " Old man, I'll be frank with you. 
 This ain't just as near my idea of bliss as I 
 thought it was going to be, when I used to go 
 to church." 
 
 Says he, " What do you say to knocking off 
 and calling it half a day? " 
 
 172
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 " That's me," says I. " I never wanted to 
 get off watch so bad in my life." 
 
 So we started. Millions were coming to 
 the cloud-bank all the time, happy and hosan- 
 nahing; millions were leaving it all the time, 
 looking mighty quiet, I tell you. We laid 
 for the new-comers, and pretty soon I'd got 
 them to hold all my things a minute, and then 
 I was a free man again and most outrageously 
 happy. Just then I ran across old Sam Bart- 
 lett, who had been dead a long time, and 
 stopped to have a talk with him. Says I : 
 
 " Now tell me is this to go on forever? 
 Ain't there anything else for a change? " 
 
 Says he: 
 
 " I'll set you right on that point very quick. 
 People take the figurative language of the 
 Bible and the allegories for literal, and the 
 first thing they ask for when they get here is a 
 halo and a harp, and so on. Nothing that's 
 harmless and reasonable is refused a body here, 
 if he asks it in the right spirit. So they are 
 outfitted with these things without a word. 
 They go and sing and play just about one day, 
 and that's the last you'll ever see them in the 
 choir. They don't need anybody to tell them 
 
 173
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 that that sort of thing wouldn't make a 
 heaven at least not a heaven that a sane man 
 could stand a week and remain sane. That 
 cloud-bank is placed where the noise can't dis- 
 turb the old inhabitants, and so there ain't any 
 harm in letting everybody get up there and 
 cure himself as soon as he comes. 
 
 " Now you just remember this heaven is as 
 blissful and lovely as it can be; but it's just 
 the busiest place you ever heard of. There 
 ain't any idle people here after the first day. 
 Singing hymns and waving palm branches 
 through all eternity is pretty when you hear 
 about it in the pulpit, but it's as poor a way 
 to put in valuable time as a body could con- 
 trive. It would just make a heaven of war- 
 bling ignoramuses, don't you see? Eternal 
 Rest sounds comforting in the pulpit, too. 
 Well, you try it once, and see how heavy time 
 will hang on your hands. Why, Stormfield, a 
 man like you, that had been active and stirring 
 all his life, would go mad in six months in a 
 heaven where he hadn't anything to do. 
 Heaven is the very last place to come to rest 
 in, and don't you be afraid to bet on that! " 
 
 Says I: 
 
 '74
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 " Sam, I'm as glad to hear it as I thought 
 I'd be sorry. I'm glad I come now." 
 
 Says he: 
 
 " Cap'n, ain't you pretty physically tired? " 
 
 Says I: 
 
 " Sam, it ain't any name for it! I'm dog- 
 tired." 
 
 "Just so just so. You've earned a good 
 sleep, and you'll get it. You've earned a good 
 appetite, and you'll enjoy your dinner. It's 
 the same here as it is on earth you've got to 
 earn a thing, square and honest, before you 
 enjoy it. You can't enjoy first and earn 
 afterwards." 
 
 Mark Twain. 
 
 WORK 
 
 Down and up, and up and down, 
 
 Over and over and over; 
 Turn in the little seed, dry and brown; 
 
 Turn out the bright red clover. 
 Work, and the sun your work will share, 
 
 And the rain in its time will fall; 
 For Nature, she worketh everywhere, 
 
 And the grace of God through all. 
 '75
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 With hand on the spade, and heart in the sky, 
 
 Dress the ground and till it; 
 Turn in the little seed, brown and dry; 
 
 Turn out the golden millet. 
 Work, and your house shall be duly fed; 
 
 Work, and the rest shall be won; 
 I hold that a man had better be dead 
 
 Than alive when his work is done! 
 
 Down and up, and up and down, 
 
 High on the hilltop, low in the valley; 
 ^Turn in the little seed, dry and brown; 
 
 Turn out the rose and lily. 
 Work with a plan, a well-laid plan, 
 
 And the end always keep in view; 
 Work, and learn at first hand, like a man; 
 
 The best way to know is to do ! 
 
 Down and up, till life shall close, 
 
 Ceasing not your praises; 
 Turn in the wild white winter snows, 
 
 Turn out the sweet, wild daisies. 
 Work, and the sun your work will share, 
 
 And the rain in its time will fall; 
 For Nature, she worketh everywhere, 
 
 And the grace of God through all. 
 
 Alice Cory. 
 
 DA COLDA FEET 
 
 " Da beggarman across da way 
 
 Ees happy as can be; 
 He laugh an' weenk baycause he theenk 
 He gotta joke on me. 
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 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 " O my, O my, how cold eet ees 
 
 For stan' on deesa street, 
 Da weends blow like dey gona freeze 
 
 Da shoes upon your feet. 
 I nevva see een deesa town 
 
 So fierce da weentra storm; 
 I keepa hoppin' up an* down 
 
 For mak' my feeta warm. 
 But beggarman across da way 
 
 He stan' against da wall, 
 So like eet was a summer day; 
 
 He ees no cold at all. 
 Ees justa box een fronta heem 
 
 For hold hees teenna cup, 
 But he bayhava so eet seem 
 
 A stove for warm heem up. 
 An' evra time he look an' see 
 
 How colda man am I, 
 He justa weenk an' laugh at me 
 
 So like he gona die. 
 An' so I leave dees fruita stan' 
 
 An' walka 'cross da street 
 For see how ees dees beggarman 
 
 Can keep so warma feet. 
 I look an' dere I see da legs 
 
 Dat prop heem by da wall 
 Ees notheeng more dan wooden pegs 
 
 He got no feet at all. 
 
 " Eef colda feet should mak' you swear 
 
 An' growl so bad as me, 
 I bat your life you would no care 
 So mooch eef you could see 
 177
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Da beggarman across da way, 
 
 So happy as can be, 
 Dat laugh an' weenk baycause he theenk 
 
 He gotta joke on me." 
 
 T. A. Daly. 
 
 But in the course of time a town-pump was 
 sunk into the source of the ancient spring; and 
 when the first decayed, another took its place, 
 and then another and still another, till here 
 stand I, gentlemen and ladies, to serve you 
 with my iron goblet. Drink and be refreshed. 
 The water is as pure and cold as that which 
 slaked the thirst of the red sagamore beneath 
 the aged boughs. . . . Let us take a 
 broader view of my beneficial influence on 
 mankind. . . . From my spout and such 
 spouts as mine, must flow the stream that shall 
 cleanse our earth of the vast portion of its 
 crime and anguish which has gushed from the 
 fiery fountains of the still. In this mighty 
 enterprise the cow shall be my great confed- 
 erate. Milk and water the Town-Pump 
 and the Cow. Such is the glorious copartner- 
 ship that shall tear down the distilleries and 
 brewhouses, uproot the vineyards, shatter the 
 
 cider-presses, ruin the tea and coffee trade, and 
 
 178
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 finally monopolize the whole business of 
 quenching thirst. Blessed consummation! 
 Then poverty shall pass away from the land, 
 finding no hovel so wretched where her squalid 
 form may shelter herself. Then disease, for 
 lack of other victims, shall gnaw its own heart 
 and die. 
 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
 
 Blindness? I am what the world calls blind 
 but I deny that I am blind and I declare that 
 there need be no such thing as blindness. 
 
 The most brilliant vision is the vision of the 
 spirit and no mishap of war or peace can take 
 that from us if we, ourselves, refuse to let it go. 
 
 The only actual darkness, and I say this 
 very solemnly, is that of ignorance and insin- 
 cerity. The aviator takes a bird's eye view of 
 the world he flies above, and is glad he feels 
 free, exalted; the blinded can do more than 
 that they can take a soul's eye view of life 
 itself and gain a freedom even greater, an 
 exaltation even more soul-stirring than the 
 most daring aviator. 
 
 Helen Keller. 
 
 Copyrighted by Edward Marshall Syndicate. 
 (From an Interview.) 
 
 179
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Never despair in the fairy-story of your life ; 
 anything may happen. In the end the best is 
 truest. This is the good news of religion. It 
 is a message of hope. Do not despair over the 
 dark experience which has come into your life. 
 Suddenly, after years, the terrible dragon 
 which has kept you in fearful bondage and 
 trembling so long is touched by the wand of 
 time, of forgiveness, of new insight, and it be- 
 comes a fairy-prince golden and glorious, 
 ready to conduct you into a new world. 
 
 Your kitchen and your pumpkin? Who 
 knows what they may become if only touched 
 by religion's magic wand? Your narrow home 
 may become a Bethel, the very house of God, 
 the very gate of heaven. 
 
 John Edgar Park. 
 
 We live in the sublime. Where else can we 
 live? That is the only place of life. And if 
 aught be lacking, it is not the chance of living 
 in heaven, rather is it watchfulness and medita- 
 tion, also perhaps a little ecstasy of soul. 
 Though you have but a little room, do you 
 fancy that God is not there, too, and that it is 
 impossible to live therein a life that shall be 
 somewhat lofty? If you complain of being 
 
 1 80
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 alone, of the absence of events, of loving no 
 one and being unloved, do you think that the 
 words are true? Do you imagine that one can 
 possibly be alone? . . . Cannot a living 
 thought proud or humble, it matters not; so 
 it come from your soul, it is great for you 
 cannot a lofty desire, or simply a moment of 
 solemn watchfulness to life, enter a little room? 
 And if you love not, or are unloved, and can 
 yet see with some depth of insight that thou- 
 sands of things are beautiful, that the soul is 
 great and life almost unspeakably earnest, is 
 that not as beautiful as though you loved or 
 were loved? . . . All that happens to us 
 is divinely great, and we are always in the cen- 
 tre of a great world. But we must accustom 
 ourselves to live like an angel who has just 
 sprung to life. 
 
 Maurice Maeterlinck. 
 From " The Treasure of the Humble" 
 
 EVERY-DAY THANKS 
 
 Haste not, dear heart, too fast and far 
 
 To reaping days, 
 To find what gifts and treasures are 
 
 Meet for thy praise, 
 Nor wait, as thou hast done, to sing 
 Thy sweetest thanks at harvesting. 
 181
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Just at thy gate a garden blooms 
 
 With life and song, 
 And in the fields a thousand looms 
 
 Hum all day long. 
 Lo! all these golden summer days 
 No toiling vale its thanks delays. 
 
 Be glad to-day, dear heart, for all 
 
 Each season gives. 
 Let come what may to speed the fall, 
 
 The present lives. 
 No creature hath one reason why 
 A thankless day should hurry by. 
 
 Frank Walcott Hutt. 
 
 There was a man who smiled 
 Because the day was bright; 
 Because he slept at night; 
 Because God gave him sight 
 To gaze upon his child! 
 Because his little one 
 Could leap and laugh and run; 
 Because the distant sun 
 Smiled on the earth, he smiled. 
 
 He toiled and still was glad 
 Because the air was free; 
 Because he loved, and she 
 That claimed his love and he 
 Shared all the joys they had ! 
 182
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 Because the grasses grew; 
 Because the sweet wind blew; 
 Because that he could hew 
 And hammer, he was glad. 
 
 B. S. Kiser. 
 
 LIVING 
 
 " How to make lives worth living? " 
 The question haunts us every day; 
 It colors the first blush of sunrise, 
 It deepens the twilight's last ray. 
 There is nothing that brings us drearier pain 
 Than the thought " We have lived, we are living, 
 in vain." 
 
 We need each and all to be needed, 
 To feel we have something to give 
 Towards soothing the moan of earth's hun- 
 ger; 
 
 And we know that then only we live 
 When we feed one another as we have been fed 
 From the hand that gives body and spirit their 
 bread. 
 
 Our lives, they are well worth the living 
 When we lose our small selves on the whole, 
 And feel the strong surges of being 
 Throb through us, one heart and one soul. 
 
 Eternity bears up each honest endeavor; 
 
 The life lost for love is life saved forever. 
 
 Lucy Larcom.
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 THE EARTH AND MAN 
 
 A little sun, a little rain, 
 
 A soft wind blowing from the west 
 And woods and fields are sweet again, 
 
 And warmth within the mountain's breast. 
 
 So simple is the earth we tread, 
 
 So quick with love and life her frame; 
 
 Ten thousand years have dawned and fled, 
 And still her magic is the same. 
 
 A little love, a little trust, 
 
 A soft impulse, a sudden dream 
 
 And life as dry as desert dust 
 
 Is fresher than a mountain stream. 
 
 So simple is the heart of man, 
 So ready for new hope and joy ! 
 
 Ten thousand years since it began 
 Have left it younger than a boy. 
 
 Stopford A. Brooke. 
 
 THREE OLD SAWS 
 
 If the world seems cold to you 
 
 Kindle fires to warm it; 
 Let their comfort hide from view 
 
 Winters that deform it. 
 Hearts as frozen as your own 
 
 To that radiance gather: 
 You will soon forget to moan 
 
 "Ah, the cheerless weather!" 
 184
 
 MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 If the world's a wilderness, 
 
 Go, build houses in it. 
 Will it help your loneliness 
 
 On the winds to din it? 
 Raise a hut, however slight; 
 
 Weeds and brambles smother; 
 And to roof and meal invite 
 
 Some forlorner brother. 
 
 If the world's a vale of tears, 
 
 Smile, till rainbows span it. 
 Breathe the love that life endears, 
 
 Clear of clouds to fan it. 
 Of your gladness lend a gleam 
 
 Unto souls that shiver; 
 Show them how dark Sorrow's stream 
 
 Blends with Hope's bright river. 
 
 Lucy Larcom. 
 
 BEAUTY 
 
 There are times in our lives when we seem to 
 go singing on aur way, and when the beauty 
 of the world sets itself like a quiet harmony to 
 the song we uplift. ... I would have all 
 busy people make times in their lives when 
 they should try to be alone with nature and 
 their own hearts. They should try to realize 
 the quiet unwearying life that manifests itself 
 in field and wood. They should wander alone 
 
 185
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 in solitary places, where the hazel-hidden 
 stream makes music, and the bird sings out of 
 the heart of the forest; in the meadows where 
 the flowers grow brightly, or through the 
 copse, purple with bluebells or starred with 
 anemones ; or they may climb the crisp turf of 
 the down, and see the wonderful world spread 
 out beneath their feet, with some clustering 
 town " smouldering and glittering " in the dis- 
 tance; or lie upon the cliff- top, with the fields 
 of waving wheat behind, and the sea spread 
 out like a wrinkled marble floor in front; or 
 walk on the sand beside the falling waves. 
 . . . A man who does not wish to do these 
 things is shutting one of the doors of his spirit, 
 a door through which many sweet and true 
 things come in. 
 
 Arthur C. Benson. 
 From "From A College Window." 
 
 ART 
 
 A thought, a scene of beauty comes home 
 with an irresistible sense of power and meaning 
 to the mind or eye. For God to have devised 
 the pale liquid green of the enamelled evening 
 
 sky, to have set the dark forms of trees against 
 
 186
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 it, and to have hung a star in the thickening 
 gloom to have done this, and to see that it is 
 good, seems in certain moods, to be the dearest 
 work of the Divine mind; and the desire to 
 express it, to speak simply of the sight, and 
 of the joy that it arouses, comes upon the mind 
 with a sweet agony, an irresistible spell; life 
 would seem to have been well spent if one had 
 only caught a few such imperishable ecstasies, 
 and written them down in a record that might 
 convey the same joy to others. . . . Life 
 can be made, with little effort, into a beautiful 
 thing; the real ugliness . . . consists not 
 in its conditions, not in good or bad fortune, 
 not in joy or sorrow, not in health or illness, 
 but upon the perceptive attitude of mind which 
 we can apply to all experiences. 
 
 Arthur C. Benson. 
 From "From A College Window." 
 
 MUSIC 
 
 There is in souls a sympathy with sounds; 
 And as the mind is pitched, the ear is pleased 
 With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave; 
 Some chord in unison with what we hear 
 Is touched within us, and the heart replies. 
 
 Cowper. 
 187
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 MUSIC 
 
 In the physical man, music will relieve pains, 
 improve the digestive functions, stimulate the 
 organs, strengthen the lungs, give grace to the 
 movements, relieve laziness, youthify the old, 
 overcome insomnia. In the mental man, 
 music will soothe the insane, calm the violent, 
 rouse the melancholy, act as a prod to the slow- 
 minded, stir the imagination (especially in 
 children) , unearth the poet, musician, sculptor, 
 writer. 
 
 In the spiritual man, music will change 
 morals, strengthen patriotism, loyalty, family 
 love, business sincerity. . . . Your body 
 is nothing but a great big storage battery which 
 either is stored with energy or is as a dried-up 
 can without enough life to sputter at the call 
 of the negative pole. Everything which serves 
 to add to the stored up energy of your system 
 is good for you. Quite outside of any 
 aesthetic values in listening to music, there is 
 the vitalizing influence which is possessed to a 
 remarkable degree. Properly listened to, 
 music makes tired, weary bodies lose their 
 enervated state and become normal. A night 
 
 at the opera is a glorious electrical bath. Join 
 
 1 88
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 a community chorus if you can, and if you 
 can't, sing by yourself. 
 
 Charles D. Isaacson, in "Physical Culture." 
 
 Oh for a booke and a shadie nooke, 
 
 Eyther in doore or out; 
 
 With the grene leaves whispering overhead 
 
 Or the streete cryes all about. 
 
 Where I male reade all at my ease, 
 
 Both of the newe and old; 
 
 For a jollie booke whereon to look, 
 
 Is better to me than golde. 
 
 Old English Song. 
 
 Wings have we, as far as we can go 
 We may find pleasure : wilderness and wood, 
 Blank ocean and mere sky, support that mood 
 Which with the lofty sanctifies the low. 
 Dreams, books, are each a world; and books 
 
 we know 
 
 Are a substantial world, both pure and good : 
 Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and 
 
 blood, 
 Our pastime and our happiness will grow. 
 
 William Wordsworth* 
 189
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 But I think as one grows older one may 
 take out a license, so to speak, to read less. 
 One may go back to the old restful books, 
 where one knows the characters well, hear the 
 old remarks, survey the same scenes. One may 
 meditate more upon one's stores, stroll about 
 more, just looking at life, seeing the quiet 
 things that are happening, and beaming 
 through one's spectacles. 
 
 Yes, the old books are a tender-hearted and 
 
 joyful company. 
 
 Arthur C. Benson. 
 
 From "From A College Window." 
 
 Do I smile? 
 
 Does my face show my joy in spite of all effort to 
 conceal it? 
 
 And you cannot guess my good fortune? 
 
 No; I have not picked up a purse, nor inherited 
 an estate, nor won a race, nor had a manu- 
 script accepted. 
 
 I have only found a friend. 
 
 I have spun another golden thread out of my 
 heart to bind me to my fellows. 
 
 Ernest Crosby. 
 
 190
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 FRIENDSHIP 
 
 A ruddy drop of manly blood 
 
 The surging sea outweighs, 
 
 The world uncertain comes and goes; 
 
 The lover rooted stays. 
 
 I fancied he was fled, 
 
 And, after many a year, 
 
 Glowed unexhausted kindliness, 
 
 Like daily sunrise there. 
 
 My careful heart was free again, 
 
 O friend, my bosom said, 
 
 Through thee alone the sky is arched, 
 
 Through thee the rose is red ; 
 
 All things through thee take nobler form, 
 
 And look beyond the earth. 
 
 The will-round of our fate appears 
 
 A sun-path in thy worth. 
 
 Me too thy nobleness has taught 
 
 To master my despair; 
 
 The fountains of my hidden life 
 
 Are through thy friendship fair. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 A FRIEND 
 
 Life offers no joy like a friend; 
 
 Fulfilment and prophecy blend 
 In the throb of a heart with its own, 
 A heart where we know and are known. 
 
 Lucy. Larcom< 
 191
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 LEST WE FORGET 
 
 Lest we forget who it is that rises morning 
 after morning, the whole year through, and 
 goes to his labor, let us sometimes recall the 
 long, daily procession of men, from those with 
 the shovel and dinner-pail who travel on foot, 
 to the merchants, the professional men and the 
 statesmen who ride to their day's work in their 
 automobiles. The occupation may be differ- 
 ent, the means of conveyance different, and the 
 recompense widely different; but one common 
 purpose actuates them, and binds them to- 
 gether into a noble fraternity. Somewhere 
 there is waiting a little woman with her chil- 
 dren, a father or mother or sister; it may be 
 in the one attic room, or in the palace, but it is 
 home, and for this home will the man toil and 
 sacrifice, if need be, as long as he has strength. 
 
 There is something exceedingly fine and 
 touching about this every-day existence of our 
 men, something that dignifies life and dignifies 
 labor and commands our highest respect. 
 What a wealth of unwritten history it repre- 
 sents struggle, weariness, tragedy, defeat, 
 poetry, victory, and glory. Each has a special 
 
 burden which few of the others suspect; for it 
 
 192
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 is a part of their splendid game of life to ap- 
 pear contented and prosperous, come what 
 may. 
 
 We women appreciate these generous- 
 hearted men, and we will do the sweet and 
 tender things for them now, while they are 
 ours. We will labor with them, weep with 
 them, smile with them, aspire with them, and 
 develop with them. 
 
 Blanche B. Herbert. 
 
 But when a crony takes your hand 
 
 At parting to address you, 
 He drops all foreign lingo, and 
 
 He says, " Good-bye, God bless you ! " 
 
 
 And all day long with pleasing song 
 
 It lingers to caress you. 
 I'm sure no human heart goes wrong 
 
 That's told, " Good-bye, God bless you." 
 
 Eugene Field. 
 
 From " The Poems of Eugene Field; " copyrighted, 1910, by 
 Julia Sutherland Field; published by Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 By permission of the publishers.
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 A LOVE SONG 
 
 Who cares for winter wild without, 
 
 Who cares for frost and snow, 
 When all the one he thinks about, 
 
 Is where the roses grow? 
 Her smiles are sweet as sunshine bright; 
 
 Her eyes like heaven's own blue; 
 She fills for me the world with light 
 
 Because she's dear and true! 
 
 Who cares for winds that bitter blow, 
 
 For sleet or stinging rain, 
 When he at heart doth surely know 
 
 His love gives love again? 
 Her whispers are like leaves attune, 
 
 With wonder of the wind; 
 Her very presence sweet as June 
 
 Enchanting heart and mind ! 
 
 William Brunton. 
 
 LIKE A LAVEROCK IN THE LIFT 
 
 It's we two, it's we two for aye, 
 
 All the world, and we two, and Heaven be our 
 
 stay! 
 
 Like a laverock in the lift, sing, O bonny bride ! 
 All the world was Adam once, with Eve by his 
 
 side. 
 
 194
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 What's the world, my lass, my love! what can 
 
 it do? 
 I am thine, and thou art mine; life is sweet and 
 
 new. 
 If the world have missed the mark, let it stand 
 
 by; 
 For we two have gotten leave, and once more 
 
 will try. 
 
 Like a laverock in the lift, sing, O bonny bride! 
 It's we two, it's we two, happy side by side. 
 Take a kiss from me, thy man; now the song 
 
 begins : 
 " All is made afresh for us, and the brave heart 
 
 wins." 
 
 When the darker days come, and no sun will 
 
 shine, 
 
 Thou shalt dry my tears, lass, and I'll dry thine. 
 It's we two, it's we two, while the world's away, 
 Sitting by the golden sheaves on our wedding 
 
 day. 
 
 Jean Ingelow. 
 
 HER WAY 
 
 Eyes? Well, no, her eyes ain't much; 
 Guess you seen a lot o' such 
 Sort o' small an' bluey-gray. 
 'T ain't her eyes it's jest her way. 
 195
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Hair ain't black, ner even brown ; 
 Got no gold upon her crown; 
 Sort o' ashy, I should say. 
 'T ain't her hair it's jest her way. 
 
 'T ain't her mouth her mouth is wide, 
 
 Sort o' runs from side to side ; 
 
 See 'em better ev'ry day. 
 
 'T ain't her mouth it's jest her way. 
 
 Nose I reckon's nothin' great, 
 Couldn't even swear it's straight; 
 'Fact, I feel I'm free to say 
 'T ain't her nose it's jest her way. 
 
 Love her? Well, I guess I do! 
 Love her mighty fond and true; 
 Love her better ev'ry day; 
 Dunno why it's jest her way. 
 
 Elisabeth Sylvester. 
 
 How many summers, Love, 
 
 Have I been thine? 
 How many days, thou dove, 
 
 Hast thou been mine? 
 Time, like the winged wind 
 
 When 't bends the flowers, 
 Hath left no mark behind, 
 
 To count the hours. 
 196
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 Some weight of thought, though loth, 
 
 On thee he leaves; 
 Some lines of care round both 
 
 Perhaps he weaves; 
 Some fears a soft regret 
 
 For joys scarce known; 
 Sweet looks we half forget; 
 
 All else is flown. 
 
 Ah ! with what thankless heart 
 
 I mourn and sing! 
 Look where our children start, 
 
 Like sudden Spring! 
 With tongues all sweet and low, 
 
 Like a pleasant rhyme, 
 They tell how much I owe 
 
 To thee and Time ! 
 
 Bryan W. Procter. 
 
 IT IS VERY COMFORTIN' 
 
 It is very comfortin', 
 
 When your hair is getting thin, 
 
 And the crow feet in your eyes have come to 
 
 stay, 
 
 Just to feel her little hand 
 Smoothin' back each silver strand, 
 While you meet her lovin' look and hear her 
 
 say 
 
 197
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 My dear, it seems as tho* 
 
 Every year you live you grow 
 
 Handsomer than in the olden days." 
 
 Then you look up at your wife 
 
 And you think in all your life 
 
 You never heard a sweeter word of praise. 
 
 But the tear-drops will arise 
 To your dim old fadin' eyes, 
 And you kiss the gentle hand, still white and 
 
 small; 
 
 While you try to tell her how 
 You loved her then love her now; 
 But bless me if the words will come at all; 
 For just then there comes to you 
 The trials she's gone thro', 
 And borne without a murmur for your sake ; 
 You can only bow your head 
 At the lovin' things she's said, 
 While your poor old heart will only ache 
 
 and ache. 
 
 But she knows what ails you then, 
 
 And she kisses you again, 
 
 While you hear her gently whisper, sweet 
 
 and low, 
 
 1 Life has brought more hopes than fears, 
 We have known more smiles than tears, 
 And the years seem ever brighter as they 
 
 go." 
 
 Yes, 'tis comfortin', you know, 
 When your step is gettin' slow 
 198
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 And you're slidin' down life's hill a'mighty 
 
 fast 
 
 Just to feel her little hand 
 Smoothin* back each silver strand, 
 While she tells you that she'll love you to 
 
 the last. 
 
 Los Angeles Herald. 
 
 SWEETHEARTS ALWAYS 
 
 If sweethearts were sweethearts always, 
 
 Whether as maid or wife, 
 No drop would be half so pleasant 
 
 In the mingled draught of life. 
 
 But the sweetheart has smiles and blushes, 
 While the wife has frowns and sighs, 
 
 And the wife's have a wrathful glitter 
 For the glow of the sweetheart's eyes. 
 
 If lovers were lovers always, 
 
 The same to sweetheart and wife, 
 
 Who would change for a future of Eden 
 The joys of this checkered life? 
 
 But husbands grow grave and silent, 
 
 And care on the anxious brow 
 Oft replaces the sunshine that perished 
 
 With the words of the marriage vow. 
 
 Happy is he whose sweetheart 
 
 Is wife and sweetheart still, 
 Whose voice, as of old, can charm him; 
 
 Whose kiss, as of old, can thrill ; 
 199
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Who has plucked the rose to find ever 
 Its beauty and fragrance increase, 
 
 As the flush of passion is mellowed 
 In love's unmeasured peace; 
 
 Who sees in the step a lightness; 
 
 Who finds in the form a grace ; 
 Who reads an unaltered brightness 
 
 In the witchery of the face, 
 
 Undimmed and unchanged. Ah, happy 
 
 Is he crowned with such a life! 
 Who drinks the wife pledging the sweetheart, 
 
 And toasts in the sweetheart the wife. 
 
 Domestic Monthly. 
 
 " There is a spot of earth supremely blest, 
 A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest; 
 Where shall that land, that spot of earth be 
 
 found ? 
 
 Art thou a man? a patriot? look around; 
 Oh, thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps 
 
 roam, 
 That land thy country, and that spot thy 
 
 home." 
 
 DREAMING OF HOME 
 
 It comes to me often in silence 
 When the firelight sputters low 
 
 When the black, uncertain shadows 
 Seem wraiths of the long ago; 
 200
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 Always with a throb of heartache 
 That thrills each pulsive vein, 
 
 Comes the old, unquiet longing 
 For the peace of home again. 
 
 I'm sick of the roar of cities, 
 
 And of faces cold and strange; 
 I know where there's warmth of welcome, 
 
 And my yearning fancies range 
 Back to the dear old homestead 
 
 With an aching sense of pain, 
 But there'll be joy in the coming 
 
 When I go home again. 
 
 When I go home again ! There's music 
 
 That may never die away, 
 And it seems that the hands of angels 
 
 On a mystic heart at play 
 Have touched with a yearning sadness 
 
 On a beautiful, broken strain, 
 To which is my fond heart wording 
 
 When I go home again. 
 
 Outside of my darkening window 
 Is the great world's crash and din, 
 
 And slowly the autumn shadows 
 Come drifting, drifting in. 
 
 Sobbing, the night wind murmurs 
 To the splash of the autumn rain. 
 
 But I dream of the glorious greeting 
 
 When I go home again. 
 
 Eugene Field. 
 
 From " The Poems of Eugene Field; " copyrighted, 1910, by 
 Julia Sutherland Field; published by Charles Scribner's 
 Sons, By permission of the publishers. 
 
 201
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 THE RETURN TO THE OLD TOWN 
 
 O the little old town that I left one day, 
 v. Because it was quiet, still 
 Has the name that it had when I went away, 
 
 And stands on the same old hill ; 
 But the ones that were dear in the little old 
 
 town, 
 
 With its one wide street running up and down, 
 Have ceased to sit on the porches where 
 
 The roses were trained to climb ; 
 They have ceased to sew and to whittle there, 
 
 As they did in the dear old time. 
 
 The little old church with its wooden sheds 
 
 Still stands as it stood of yore; 
 But the ones who knelt and who bowed their 
 
 heads 
 
 Are worshipping there no more! 
 And the little old school where I carved my 
 
 name 
 On the home-made desk stands just the 
 
 same 
 But the boys who are batting- the ball to-day 
 
 And the little maids, fair and free, 
 Are not the children who used to play 
 On the common there with me! 
 
 The little old house, so dear, so dear, 
 Stands just where it used to stand; 
 
 But not for many and many a year 
 Has the latch obeyed her hand 
 
 202
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 The hand in which my hand was laid 
 When my first few faltering steps were 
 
 made 
 And in the little parlor there, 
 
 O'erlooking the little lawn, 
 Another sits in her easy chair, 
 
 And hears the clock tick on. 
 
 O the little old town that I left one day 
 
 Because it was quiet and still 
 Has the name that it had when I went away, 
 
 And stands on the same old hill; 
 But the friends that I've travelled " back 
 
 home " to see 
 
 Are gone, or else are but strangers to me, 
 And over the doors of the little old stores 
 
 Are names that I never knew, 
 And the dream that was dear of the "old 
 
 home " here 
 Can never, alas, come true! 
 
 5*. H. Kiser. 
 
 WHEN DE CO'N PONE'S HOT 
 
 " Dey is times in life when Nature 
 
 Seems to slip a cog an' go, 
 Jes' a rattlin' down creation, 
 Lak an ocean's overflow; 
 When de worl' jes' stahts a-spinnin* 
 
 Lak a picaninny's top, 
 An' yo' cup o' joy is brimmin* 
 'Twel it seems about to slop. 
 203
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 An* yo' feel jes' lak a racah, 
 Dat is trainin' fu' to trot 
 
 When yo' mammy ses de blessin' 
 An' de co'n pone's hot. 
 
 " When you set down at de table, 
 
 Kin' o' weary lak an' sad, 
 An' you'se jes' a little tiahed 
 
 An' purhaps a little mad; 
 How yo' gloom tu'ns into gladness, 
 
 How yo' joy drives out de doubt 
 When de oven do' is opened, 
 
 An' de smell comes po'in' out; 
 Why, de 'lectric light o' Heaven 
 
 Seems to settle on de spot, 
 When yo' mammy ses de blessin* 
 
 An' de co'n pone's hot. 
 
 " When de cabbage pot is steamin* 
 
 An' de bacon good an' fat, 
 When de chittlin's is a-sputter'n' 
 
 So's to show you whah dey's at, 
 Take away yo' sody biscuit, 
 
 Take away yo' cake an' pie, 
 Fu' de glory time is comin', 
 
 An' it's 'proachin' very nigh, 
 An' you want to jump an' hollah, 
 
 Do' you know you'd bettah not, 
 When yo' mammy ses de blessin' 
 
 An' de co'n pone's hot. 
 
 " I have heerd o' lots o' sermons, 
 
 An' I've heerd o' lots o' prayers; 
 An' I've listened to some singin' 
 Dat has tuk me up de stairs 
 204
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 Of de Glory-Lan' an' set me 
 
 Jes' below de Mahster's th'one 
 An' have lef my hawt a-singin' 
 
 In a happy aftah tone. 
 But dem wu'ds so sweetly murmured 
 
 Seem to tech de softes' spot, 
 When my mammy ses de blessin', 
 
 An' de co'n pone's hot." 
 
 MY MOTHER 
 
 " Some one I love comes back to me 
 With every gentle face I see; 
 Beneath each wave of soft gray hair 
 I seem to see my mother there. 
 With every kindly glance and word, 
 It seems as if I must have heard 
 Her speak, and felt her tender gaze 
 With all the love of olden days. 
 And I am moved to take her hand 
 And tell her, now I understand 
 How tired she grew beneath the strain 
 Of feeling every loved one's pain. 
 No further burdens could she bear; 
 The promise of that land more fair 
 Alone could tempt her from her child; 
 And now, if I could keep her here, 
 No sacrifice could be too dear, 
 No tempered winds for her too mild. 
 205
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Then I would smooth and kiss her face, 
 And by her side take my old place, 
 And sob my years and cares away. 
 The tears I have so long repressed 
 Would lose their ache upon her breast; 
 I think if I could feel her touch 
 Once more, it would not matter much 
 How sunny or how dark the day." 
 
 ROCK ME TO SLEEP, MOTHER 
 
 Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your 
 
 flight 
 
 Make me a child again just for to-night! 
 Mother, come back from the echoless shore, 
 Take me again to your heart as of yore. 
 Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care, 
 Smooth the few silver threads out of my 
 
 hair, 
 
 Over my slumbers your loving watch keep ; 
 Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep. 
 
 Over my heart, in the days that are flown, 
 No love like mother love ever has shone; 
 No other worship abides and endures, 
 Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours; 
 None like a mother can charm away pain 
 From the sick soul and the world-weary 
 
 brain ; 
 Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids 
 
 creep; 
 Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep." 
 
 Elisabeth Akers. 
 206
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 HOME, SWEET HOME 
 
 Mid pleasures and palaces though we may 
 
 roam, 
 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like 
 
 home! 
 A charm from the skies seems to hallow us 
 
 there, 
 Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met 
 
 with elsewhere. 
 
 Home! home! sweet, sweet home! 
 There's no place like home ; there's no place 
 
 like home. 
 
 How sweet 'tis to sit 'neath a fond father's 
 smile, 
 
 And the cares of a mother to soothe and be- 
 guile. 
 
 Let others delight 'mid new pleasures to 
 roam, 
 
 But give me, oh! give me the pleasures of 
 
 home. 
 Home! home! sweet, sweet home! 
 
 But give me, oh! give me the pleasures of 
 home. 
 
 To thee I'll return, over-burdened with care. 
 The heart's dearest solace will smile on me 
 
 there ; 
 
 No more from that cottage again will I roam 
 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like 
 
 home. 
 
 207
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Home! home! sweet, sweet home! 
 There's no place like home; there's no place 
 like home. 
 
 John Howard Payne. 
 
 THINGS THAT NEVER DIE 
 
 The pure, the bright, the beautiful, 
 
 That stirred their hearts in youth, 
 The ^impulses to wordless prayer, 
 
 The dreams of love and truth; 
 The longings after something lost, 
 
 The spirit's yearning cry, 
 The strivings after better hopes 
 
 These things can never die. 
 
 The timid hand stretched forth to aid 
 
 A brother in his need, 
 A kindly word in grief's dark hour 
 
 That proves a friend indeed; 
 The plea for mercy, softly breathed, 
 
 When justice threatens high 
 The sorrow of a contrite heart 
 
 These things shall never die. 
 
 The memory of a clasping hand, 
 
 The pressure of a kiss, 
 And all the trifles, sweet and frail, 
 
 That make up love's first bliss; 
 If with a firm, unchanging faith, 
 
 And holy trust and high, 
 Those hands have clasped, those lips have 
 met 
 
 These things shall never die. 
 208
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 Let nothing pass, for every hand 
 
 Must find some work to do ; 
 Lose not a chance to waken love 
 
 Be firm and just and true; 
 So shall a light that cannot fade 
 
 Beam on thee from on high, 
 And angel voices say to thee 
 
 These things shall never die. 
 
 Charles Dickens. 
 
 MEMORY 
 
 There's not a heath, however rude, 
 But hath some little flower 
 
 To brighten up its solitude 
 And scent the evening hour. 
 
 There's not a heart, however cast 
 By grief or sorrow down, 
 
 But hath some memory of the past 
 To love and call its own." 
 
 A PETITION 
 
 Let me get not far from the common road, 
 With, all around me, the common things; 
 
 Let me feel the nip of the Winter's cold; 
 The quiver and stir of budding Springs; 
 
 The Summer's heat and the Autumn's lull; 
 And a sense of the old world beautiful. 
 209
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Let me hear the children about the house 
 No sermon so great in all the land 
 
 Let me greet the glance of an earnest eye, 
 The cheerful clasp of a toiling hand. 
 
 Let me linger where throbs the heart of life, 
 And where hope and valor mark the strife. 
 
 Let me find true rest in weariness ; 
 
 Let me know the worth of the grime of things ; 
 And face, clear-eyed, the struggling days 
 
 That come with bruises, but not with stings. 
 The Just One ruleth this Vast Estate; 
 
 Shall I count that little which He makes great? 
 
 Julian A. DuBois. 
 
 THE SWEET OF THE SONG 
 
 Disappointments are many and deep, 
 But under the shadows the sunbeams sleep, 
 And only be patient, the morning will bring 
 That old, ineffable, beautiful thing 
 The waking of joy from its little gloom, 
 And the bursting of life into fresher bloom. 
 
 We think our fortunes are evil and drear, 
 But love still smiles through the darkest tear, 
 And laughter is waiting to ring and leap 
 Whenever the shadows begin to creep 
 Slowly and sweetly away again 
 And we come forth braver and better men. 
 aio
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 Sometimes sadness will seize us all, 
 And spirits of gladness begin to fall; 
 But love so patient and sweet and true 
 Brushes the clouds from the skies of blue, 
 And laughter and beauty come back to the 
 
 song, 
 And I cannot be downcast very long. 
 
 Bentztown Bard. 
 
 Copyrighted by. Southern Press Syndicate. 
 
 " Teach me, O star of night, 
 With modest, steady light, 
 Obedient, glad, to go the way 
 From which God bids me not to stay; 
 Teach me, O star of night ! 
 
 " Teach me, O flowers of night, 
 To wait for summer bright, 
 And in the midst of earth's deep woe 
 To sprout beneath the winter's snow 
 Teach me, O flowers of night! 
 
 " Teach me, thou verdant wood, 
 To shelter if I could 
 Each being, friend or foe, whose face 
 I meet in treading earth's great race; 
 Teach me, thou verdant wood ! 
 
 211
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 " Ye ocean waves so fair, 
 Teach me my yoke to bear, 
 And, like you, when day's voices cease 
 Reflect a thought of heavenly peace 
 Teach me, ye waves so fair ! 
 
 " O sun, at cool of even 
 Show me the way to heaven ; 
 Teach me to find in earth's dark night 
 The promise of eternal light; 
 Teach me, O sun, at even ! " 
 
 BIDE A WEE AND DINNA FRET 
 
 Is the road very dreary? 
 
 Patience yet. 
 
 Rest will be sweeter if thou art a-weary, 
 And after night cometh the morning cheery; 
 
 Then bide a wee and dinna fret. 
 
 The clouds have silver lining, 
 
 Don't forget. 
 And though he's hidden, still the sun is 
 
 shining ; 
 Courage ! instead of tears and vain repining, 
 
 Just bide a wee and dinna fret. 
 
 With toil and cares unending 
 
 Art beset? 
 Bethink thee how the storms, from heaven 
 
 descending, 
 Snap the stiff oak, but spare the willow 
 
 bending, 
 And bide a wee and dinna fret. 
 
 212
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 Grief sharper sting doth borrow 
 
 From regret; 
 
 But yesterday is gone, and shall its sorrow 
 Unfit us for the present and the morrow? 
 
 Nay ; bide a wee and dinna fret. 
 
 An over-anxious brooding 
 
 Doth beget 
 
 A host of fears and fantasies deluding; 
 Then, brother, lest these torments be in- 
 truding, 
 Just bide a wee and dinna fret. 
 
 Every Other Saturday. 
 
 A SONG FOR THE NEW YEAR 
 
 Forget! for why remember 
 
 The wrongs of yesterday? 
 Perchance kind words were spoken 
 
 To heal the breach to-day; 
 Then let the past forever be 
 A blank leaf in thy memory. 
 
 Forget the Old Year's failings, 
 The New will have its share; 
 
 Each one will find that haply 
 He hath enough to bear 
 
 Without the memory of the wrong 
 
 That to the Old Year doth belong. 
 213
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Let bygones be bygones " for why 
 Should thoughts that gender strife 
 
 Be nourished in the bosoms 
 That but embitter life? 
 
 And fill this world, that else, were fair, 
 
 With scenes of sorrow, strife, and care? 
 
 Forgive ! for why should we withhold 
 
 The blessings that we need, 
 Or let an erring brother 
 
 In vain for mercy plead? 
 Oh ! cold must be the hearts, and rare, 
 That could reject the suppliant prayer. 
 
 Forgive ! for Time's swift pinions 
 
 Are bearing us along, 
 And few may be our moments 
 
 To do or suffer wrong; 
 Then let us, while the power is given, 
 Forgive, as we would be forgiven ! 
 
 Finley Johnson. 
 
 A BIT OF ADVICE 
 
 Don't cover your cross with prickles. 
 
 It is hard enough to bear, 
 It needs all your courage to carry 
 
 And not a bit to spare. 
 So take it as it is given, 
 
 And add no care nor fret, 
 For under the goad the heaviest load 
 
 Weighs tenfold heavier yet. 
 214
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 Don't cover your cross with prickles. 
 
 What use are worry and tears? 
 They only cripple the spirit, 
 
 They only darken the years. 
 No; take up your burden bravely, 
 
 And it will surely grow 
 More light each day, as along life's way, 
 
 Your steadfast footsteps go. 
 
 Priscilla Leonard. 
 
 THE STARS 
 
 I lay at my ease in my little boat, 
 
 Fast moored to the shores of the pond, 
 
 And looked up through the trees that swayed in 
 
 the breeze 
 At God's own sky beyond. 
 
 And I thought of the want and the sin in the 
 world, 
 
 And the pain and grief they bring, 
 And I marvelled at God for spreading abroad 
 
 Such sorrow and suffering. 
 
 Evening came creeping over the earth, 
 
 And the sky grew dim and gray, 
 And faded from sight, and I grumbled at night 
 
 For stealing my sky away. 
 215
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Then out of the dark just the speck of a face 
 Peeped forth from its window bars, 
 
 And I laughed to see it smile at me; 
 I had not thought of the stars! 
 
 There are millions of loving thoughts and deeds 
 
 All ripe for awakening, 
 
 That never could start from the world's cold 
 heart 
 
 But for sorrow and suffering. 
 
 Yes, the blackening night, it is sombre and cold, 
 
 And the day was warm and fine; 
 And yet if the day never faded away, 
 
 The stars would never shine ! 
 
 Robert Beverly Hale 
 
 "O don't be sorrowful, darling! 
 
 Now don't be sorrowful, pray ; 
 For taking the year together, my dear, 
 
 There isn't more night than day. 
 It's rainy weather, my loved one; 
 
 Time's wheels they heavily run; 
 But taking the year together, my dear, 
 
 There isn't more cloud than sun." 
 
 In the still air the music lies unheard; 
 
 In the rough marble beauty hides unseen; 
 To make the music and the beauty, needs 
 
 The master's touch, the sculptor's chisel keen. 
 216
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 Great Master, touch us with Thy skilful hand : 
 Let not the music that is in us die ! 
 
 Great Sculptor, hew and polish us; nor let, 
 Hidden and lost, Thy form within us lie ! 
 
 Horatio Bonar. 
 
 O heart of mine, we shouldn't worry so ! 
 What we've missed of calm we couldn't 
 
 have, you know! 
 What we've met of stormy pain, 
 And of sorrow's driving rain, 
 We can better meet again, 
 If it blow! 
 
 For we know, not every morrow can be 
 
 sad; 
 So, forgetting all the sorrow 
 
 We have had, 
 Let us fold away our fears, 
 And put by our childish tears, 
 And through all the coming years, 
 Just be glad. 
 
 James Whitcomb Riley. 
 
 ENDURANCE 
 
 How much the heart may bear, and yet not 
 
 break ! 
 
 How much the flesh may suffer, and not die ! 
 I question much if any pain or ache 
 
 Of soul or body brings our end more nigh. 
 Death chooses his own time ; till that is worn, 
 All evils may be borne. 
 217
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 We shrink and shudder at the surgeon's knife; 
 
 Each nerve recoiling from the cruel steel, 
 Whose edge seems searching for the quivering 
 life; 
 
 Yet to our sense the bitter pangs reveal 
 That still, although the trembling flesh be torn, 
 
 This, also, can be borne. 
 
 We see a sorrow rising in our way, 
 
 And try to flee from the approaching ill; 
 We seek some small escape we weep and 
 
 pray- 
 But when the blow falls, then our hearts are 
 
 still, 
 
 Not that the pain is of its sharpness shorn, 
 But that it can be borne. 
 
 We wind our life about another life 
 We hold it closer, dearer than our own 
 
 Anon it faints and falls in deadly strife, 
 
 Leaving us stunned, and stricken, and alone; 
 
 But ah ! we do not die with those we mourn 
 This, also, can be borne. 
 
 Behold, we live through all things famine, 
 
 thirst, 
 
 Bereavement, pain ! all grief and misery, 
 All woe and sorrow ; life inflicts its most 
 On soul and body but we cannot die, 
 Though we be sick, and tired, and faint, and 
 
 worn ; 
 Lo! all things can be borne. 
 
 Elizabeth Akers. 
 218
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 " If I have faltered more or less 
 In my great task of happiness ; 
 If I have moved among my race 
 And shown no glorious morning face; 
 If beams from happy human eyes 
 Have moved me not ; if morning skies, 
 Books, and my food, and summer rain, 
 Knocked on my sullen heart in vain 
 Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take, 
 And stab my spirit broad awake." 
 
 Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 
 A PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING 
 
 I thank Thee for the blue of the sky, the 
 sunshine and the sweetness of the air. I thank 
 Thee for the dark days and the storms, for they 
 heighten my appreciation of the sunshine, the 
 calm and the peace when they are mine. 
 
 I thank Thee for work that keeps we whole- 
 somely occupied from morning until night. I 
 thank Thee for comforts and joys; and I pray 
 Thee to help me to make the most of them 
 while they are mine. 
 
 I thank Thee for disappointments, for they 
 make me thoughtful, and through them I am 
 led to understand what are the real values and 
 
 essentials of life. I thank Thee for sorrows, 
 
 219
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 for from the depths of woe I have learned to 
 cry unto Thee a blessing which I might have 
 missed had I always been happy. I thank 
 Thee for pain, failure and want, for through 
 them I am cleansed of self, my mind and heart 
 are enlarged, my insight is deepened, and I 
 am thus enabled to be a more discerning and 
 sympathetic friend and neighbor. These 
 every-day blessings and experiences they are 
 all mine. 
 
 I pray Thee to increase my power to surfer 
 in silence that I may not add to the woes of 
 others, and to help me to smile and carry a 
 cheerful voice that I may add a few more rays 
 of sunshine to the brightness of the day. 
 
 Blanche H. Herbert. 
 
 'AN EVENING PRAYER 
 
 We beseech Thee, Lord, to behold us with 
 favor, folk of many families and nations, gath- 
 ered together in the peace of this roof. Be 
 patient still ; suffer us a while longer to endure, 
 and (if it may be) help us to do better. Bless 
 to us our extraordinary mercies. Bless our 
 
 friends; be with ourselves. Go with each of 
 
 220
 
 I WILL MENTION MY BLESSINGS INSTEAD 
 OF MY BURDENS 
 
 us to rest. If any awake, temper to them the 
 dark hours of watching; and when the day re- 
 turns to us, call us up with morning faces and 
 with morning hearts eager to labor eager 
 to be happy, if happiness shall be our por- 
 tion and if the day be marked for sorrow 
 strong to endure it. 
 
 Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 
 " For the world is full of roses, and the roses 
 
 full of dew, 
 
 And the dew is full of heavenly love that 
 drips for me and you." 
 
 221
 
 I WILL SPEAK OF THE SUNSHINE 
 OF YESTERDAY AND TO-MOR- 
 ROW INSTEAD OF THE 
 CLOUDS OF TO-DAY 
 
 1 The blue of heaven is larger than the cloud."
 
 I WILL SPEAK OF THE SUNSHINE 
 OF YESTERDAY AND TO-MOR- 
 ROW INSTEAD OF THE 
 CLOUDS OF TO-DAY 
 
 All sorts of things and weather 
 Must be taken in together, 
 To make up a year 
 And a sphere. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 It ain't no use to grumble and complain, 
 It's just as cheap and easy to rejoice ; 
 
 When God sorts out the weather and sends rain, 
 Why, rain's my choice. 
 
 James Whitcomb Riley. 
 
 DAME NATURE'S RECIPE 
 
 Take a dozen little clouds 
 
 And a patch of blue ; 
 Take a million raindrops, 
 
 As many sunbeams, too. 
 225
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Take a host of violets, 
 
 A wandering little breeze, 
 And myriads of little leaves 
 
 Dancing on the trees. 
 
 Then mix them well together, 
 
 In the very quickest way, 
 Showers and sunshine, birds and flowers, 
 
 And you'll have an April day. 
 
 Rachel G. Smith. 
 
 SUMMER RAIN 
 
 Pell ! mell ! comes the rushing rain, 
 The sad little brook laughs loud again. 
 The thirsty leaves on the great elm-tree 
 Drink up their portion thankfully. 
 
 There's a stir of joy in the garden-place; 
 Almost a smile on the pansy's face; 
 And I seem to hear a red rose say, 
 How glad I am that it rains to-day ! 
 
 Down in a hollow in the path 
 Little Brown Sparrow is taking a bath, 
 And the pool in the yard is in perfect trim 
 For the baby ducks to have a swim. 
 
 Down fall the bright drops, tink-a-link! 
 A robin hastens to get a drink. 
 Through the flooded street, with^a shout of joy, 
 And a splash and a dash, goes a barefooted boy. 
 226
 
 I WILL SPEAK OF THE SUNSHINE INSTEAD 
 OF THE CLOUDS 
 
 Soft, soft, comes the gentle rain ; 
 The faded earth is bright again ; 
 And hark ! the joyous children cry, 
 A rainbow ! A rainbow in the sky ! 
 
 Mary F. Butts. 
 
 There can be no very black melancholy to 
 him who lives in the midst of Nature and has 
 his senses still. There was never yet such a 
 storm but it was 2Eolian music to a healthy 
 and innocent ear. Nothing can rightly com- 
 pel a simple and brave man to a vulgar sad- 
 ness. While I enjoy the friendship of the 
 seasons I trust that nothing can make life a 
 burden to me. The gentle rain which waters 
 my beans and keeps me in the house to-day is 
 not drear and melancholy, but good for me 
 too. Though it prevents my hoeing them, it 
 is of far more worth than my hoeing. If it 
 should continue so long as to cause the seeds 
 to rot in the ground and destroy the potatoes 
 in the lowlands, it would still be good for the 
 grass on the uplands, and, being good for the 
 grass, it would be good for me. 
 
 Henry D. Thoreau. 
 
 227
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 " It is not raining rain to me, 
 
 It's raining daffodils; 
 In every dimpled drop I see 
 Wild flowers on the hills. 
 
 " The clouds of gray engulf the day 
 
 And overwhelm the town; 
 It is not raining rain to me, 
 It's raining roses down. 
 
 " It is not raining rain to me, 
 
 But fields of clover bloom, 
 Where any buccaneering bee 
 Can find a bed and room. 
 
 " A health unto the happy, 
 
 A fig for him who frets! 
 It is not raining rain to me, 
 It's raining violets ! " 
 
 Just whistle a bit if the day be dark 
 
 And the sky be overcast. 
 If mute be the voice of the piping lark, 
 
 Why, pipe your own small blast. 
 
 And it's wonderful how o'er the gray sky-track, 
 The truant warbler comes stealing back. 
 
 But why need he come? for your soul's at rest, 
 And the song in the heart, ah, that is the best. 
 
 Paul Laurence Dunbar. 
 228
 
 I WILL SPEAK OF THE SUNSHINE INSTEAD 
 OF THE CLOUDS 
 
 " Each gift is as we use it : 
 Each place its cloud must share. 
 Except as we refuse it 
 There's sunshine everywhere." 
 
 There is ever a song somewhere, my dear; 
 There is ever a something sings always; 
 There's the song of the lark when the skies are 
 
 clear 
 And the song of the thrush when the skies are 
 
 gray. 
 
 The sunshine showers across the grain, 
 And the bluebird trills in the orchard tree; 
 And in and out when the eaves drip rain, 
 The swallows are twittering ceaselessly. 
 
 There is ever a song somewhere, my dear, 
 
 Be the skies above or dark, or fair, 
 There is ever a song that our hearts may hear 
 There is ever a song somewhere, my dear 
 There is ever a song somewhere ! 
 
 James Whit comb Riley. 
 
 I know of no nobler forage ground for a 
 romantic, venturesome, mischievous boy, than 
 the garret of an old family mansion, on a day 
 of storm. It is a perfect field of chivalry. 
 
 The heavy rafters, the dashing rain, the piles of 
 
 229
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 spare mattresses to carouse upon, the big 
 trunks to hide in, the old white coats and hats 
 hanging in obscure corners, like ghosts are 
 great ! . . . You glide away into a corner 
 with an old, dogs'-eared copy of Robinson 
 Crusoe. And you grow heart and soul into the 
 story, until you tremble for the poor fellow 
 with his guns, behind the palisade; and are 
 yourself half dead with fright, when you peep 
 cautiously over the hill with your glass, and 
 see the cannibals at their orgies around the 
 fire. . . . And so, with your head upon 
 your hand, in your quiet garret comer, over 
 some such beguiling story, your thought leans 
 away from the book into your own dreamy 
 cruise over the sea of life. 
 
 Donald G. Mitchell 
 
 TIME TO TINKER 'ROUN' 
 
 Summah's nice, wif sun a-shinin', 
 
 Spring is good wif greens and grass, 
 An' dey's somethings nice 'bout wintah, 
 
 Dough hit brings de freezin' bias' ; 
 But de time dat is de fines', 
 
 Whethah fiel's is green er brown, 
 Is w'en de rain's a-po'in* 
 
 An' dey's time to tinker 'roun'. 
 230
 
 I WILL SPEAK OF THE SUNSHINE INSTEAD 
 OF THE CLOUDS 
 
 Den you men's de mule's ol* ha'ness, 
 
 An' you men's de broken chair, 
 Hummin* all de time you's wukin' 
 
 Some ol' common kind o' air. 
 Evah now an' then you looks out, 
 
 Tryin' mighty ha'd to frown, 
 But you cain't, you's glad hit's rainin', 
 
 An* dey's time to tinker 'roun'. 
 
 Oh, you 'ten's lak you so anxious 
 
 Evah time it so't o' stops, 
 Wen hit goes on, den you reckon 
 
 Dat de wet'll he'p de crops. 
 But hit ain't de crops you's af tah ; 
 
 You knows w'en de rain conies down 
 Dat hit's too wet out fu' wukin', 
 
 An' dey's time to tinker 'roun'. 
 
 Oh, dey's fun inside de co'n-crib, 
 
 An' dey's laffin' at de ba'n ; 
 An' dey's allus some one jokin', 
 
 Er some one to tell a ya'n. 
 Dah's a quiet in yo' cabin, 
 
 Only fu' de rain's sof soun'; 
 So you's mighty blessed happy 
 
 W'en dey's time to tinker 'roun' ! 
 
 Paul Laurence Dunbar. 
 
 31
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 MOTHER'S RAINY DAY 
 
 Sometimes there's a rainy day; an' then 
 We lay off a spell, we men. 
 Pa talks politicks and reads the papers, 
 And we boys putter 'round and cut up capers, 
 An' whittle, even down to little brother. 
 But dunno as I can recollect a rainy day for 
 mother. 
 
 Seems as if she worked harder then than any 
 
 other day, 
 
 Trying to keep things straight and put away, 
 Stirrin' up the fire so it won't seem dreary, 
 Cookin' something extra then, makin' things 
 
 more cheery; 
 
 Pickin' up pa's slippers, or something or another. 
 I don't believe there ever was a rainy day for 
 
 mother. 
 
 But then she don't complain. Just keeps work- 
 in' on. 
 
 Sometimes she has a pleasant word, sometimes 
 a bit of song, 
 
 And lots of times I fancy she has a tired look 
 
 An' I'd feel lots better if she'd rest or read a 
 book. 
 
 A,n' then I wipe the dishes, or do something or 
 another, 
 
 An' wish with all my heart there was a rainy 
 day for mother. 
 
 Florence A. Hayes. 
 232
 
 I WILL SPEAK OF THE SUNSHINE INSTEAD 
 OF THE CLOUDS 
 
 " A little bit of patience often makes the sun- 
 shine come, 
 
 And a little bit of love makes a very happy 
 home; 
 
 A little bit of hope makes a rainy day look 
 gay, 
 
 And a little bit of charity makes glad a weary 
 way." 
 
 " Whatever the weather may be," says he 
 
 " Whatever the weather may be, 
 It's the songs ye sing, an' the smiles ye wear, 
 That's a-making the sun shine everywhere; 
 An' the world of gloom is a world of glee, 
 Wid the bird in the bush, an' the bird in the 
 
 tree, 
 An' the fruit on the stim o' the bough," 
 
 says he, 
 
 " Whatever the weather may be," says he 
 " Whatever the weather may be." 
 
 James Whitcomb Riley. 
 
 The cock is crowing, 
 The stream is flowing, 
 The small birds twitter, 
 The lake doth glitter, 
 ,The green field sleeps in the sun; 
 The oldest and youngest 
 Are at work with the strongest; 
 
 233
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 The cattle are grazing, 
 
 Their heads never raising; 
 There are forty feeding like one ! 
 
 Like an army defeated 
 
 The snow hath retreated, 
 
 And now doth fare ill 
 
 On the top of the bare hill ; 
 The Ploughboy is whooping anon anon : 
 
 There's joy in the mountains; 
 
 There's life in the fountains; 
 
 Small clouds are sailing, 
 
 Blue sky prevailing; 
 The rain is over and gone ! 
 
 ! William Wordsworth. 
 
 234
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD 
 OF CRITICISE 
 
 "Pray for a short memory to all unkindness.
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF 
 CRITICISE 
 
 Die when I may, I want it said of me by 
 those who know me best that I always plucked 
 a thistle and planted a flower, where I thought 
 a flower would grow. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 THE WASP AND THE BEE 
 
 A wasp met a bee that was just buzzing by, 
 And he said, " Little cousin, can you tell me 
 
 why 
 You are loved so much better by people 
 
 than I? 
 
 " My back shines as bright and as yellow as 
 
 gold, 
 
 And my shape is most elegant too, to behold; 
 Yet nobody likes me for that, I am told." 
 
 " Ah, cousin," the bee said, " 'tis all very true; 
 But if I had half as much mischief to do, 
 Indeed they would love me no better than you. 
 237
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 " You have a fine shape and a delicate wing; 
 They own you are handsome ; but then there's 
 
 one thing 
 They cannot put up with, and that is your 
 
 sting. 
 
 " My coat is quite homely and plain, as you see, 
 Yet nobody ever is angry with me, 
 Because I'm a humble and innocent bee." 
 
 From this little story let people beware : 
 Because, like the wasp, if ill-natured they are, 
 They will never be loved, if they're ever so fair. 
 
 Jane Taylor. 
 
 A CREED 
 
 I believe in Human kindness 
 
 Large amid the sons of men, 
 Nobler far in willing blindness 
 
 Than in censure's keenest ken. 
 I believe in Self-Denial, 
 
 And its secret throb of joy; 
 In the love that lives through trial, 
 
 Dying not, though death destroy. 
 
 I believe in Love renewing 
 
 All that sin hath swept away, 
 Leavenlike its work pursuing 
 
 Night by night and day by day; 
 In the power of its remoulding, 
 
 In the grace of its reprieve, 
 In the glory of beholding 
 
 Its perfection I believe. 
 238
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF CRITICISE 
 
 I believe in Love Eternal, 
 
 Fixed in God's unchanging will, 
 That beneath the deep infernal 
 
 Hath a depth that's deeper still I 
 In its patience its endurance 
 
 To forbear and to retrieve, 
 In the large and full assurance 
 
 Of its triumph I believe. 
 
 Norman Macleod. 
 
 A HINT OF LIFE 
 
 Don't look for the flaws as you go through life; 
 
 And even when you find them, 
 It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind, 
 
 And look for the virtues behind them ; 
 For the cloudiest night has a hint of light 
 
 Somewhere in the shadows hiding. 
 It is better by far to hunt for a star 
 
 Than the spot on the sun abiding. 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 So many little faults we find : 
 
 We see them, for not blind 
 
 Is love we see them ; but if you and I 
 Remember them, perhaps, some by and by 
 
 They will not be 
 
 Faults then, grave faults to you and me, 
 
 But just odd ways, mistakes, or even less 
 
 Remembrances to bless. 
 
 George Klingle.
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 If we noticed little pleasures 
 
 As we notice little pains; 
 If we quite forgot our losses 
 
 And remembered all our gains; 
 If we looked for people's virtues 
 
 And their faults refused to see, 
 What a comfortable, happy, 
 
 Cheerful place this world would be." 
 
 " Only a frown ! Yet it pressed a sting 
 
 Into the day which had been so glad; 
 The red rose turned to a scentless thing: 
 The bird-song ceased with discordant ring; 
 And a heart was heavy and sad. 
 
 " Only a smile ! yet it cast a spell 
 
 Over the sky which had been so gray; 
 The rain made music wherever it fell; 
 The wind sang the song of the marriage-bell, 
 And a heart was light and gay." 
 
 Only a smile that was given me 
 
 On the crowded street one day 
 But it pierced the gloom of my saddened heart 
 
 Like the sudden sunbeam's ray. 
 The shadows of doubt hung over me 
 
 And the burdens of pain I bore, 
 And the voice of hope I could not hear 
 
 Though I listened o'er and o'er. 
 240
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF CRITICISE 
 
 " But there came a rift in the crowd about 
 
 And a face I knew passed by, 
 And the smile I caught was brighter to me 
 
 Than the blue of a summer sky; 
 For it gave me back the sunshine 
 
 And it scattered each sober thought, 
 And my heart rejoiced in the kindly warmth 
 
 Which that kindly smile had wrought." 
 
 SPEAK NO ILL 
 
 Nay, speak no ill! a kindly word 
 
 Can never leave a sting behind : 
 And, oh ! to breathe each tale we've heard 
 
 Is far beneath a noble mind. 
 Full oft a better seed is sown, 
 
 By choosing thus the kinder plan; 
 For if but little good be known, 
 
 Still let us speak the best we can. 
 
 ' Give us the heart that fain would hide, 
 
 Would fain another's faults efface; 
 How can it please e'en human pride 
 
 To prove humanity but base? 
 No ! let us reach a higher mood, 
 
 A nobler sentiment of man; 
 Be earnest in the search of good, 
 And speak of all the best we can. 
 241
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Then speak no ill, but lenient be 
 
 To other's failings as your own; 
 If you're the first a fault to see, 
 
 Be not the first to make it known. 
 For life is but a passing day, 
 
 No lip may tell how brief its span; 
 Then, oh ! the little time we stay, 
 
 Let's speak of all the best we can." 
 
 UNCLE DAN'S PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Ever heard of Uncle Dan? 
 Such a queer, peculiar man! 
 
 Never grumbles come what may, 
 " What's the use of it! " says he; 
 " Frettin' never seems to pay 
 
 Anyway, it don't with me, 
 When a thing has happened why, 
 ' What's done can't be helped,' says I: 
 So, to show you've got some grit, 
 Grin, an' make the best of it." 
 
 Strange old fellow, Uncle Dan! 
 " Always stan' up for a man 
 
 When they're down on him," says he, 
 " 'Till you know he's in the wrong 
 Frien's ain't what they ought to be 
 
 When you buy 'em with a song. 
 I go in for trustin' men; 
 Sometimes I get fooled but then, 
 Better trust an' be deceived 
 Than to never have believed ! " 
 242
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF CRITICISE 
 
 Dear, old-fashioned Uncle Dan! 
 Steadfast friend and honest man: 
 
 Brave with faith in human kind, 
 Strong with trust in God above; 
 To a comrade's frailties blind, 
 
 Quick to see with eyes of love! 
 There's a sermon in his creed 
 Surely he who runs may read, 
 And the world's a brighter place 
 Since he looked it in the face. 
 
 Eben E. Rexford. 
 
 LIFE'S SCARS 
 
 They say the world is round and yet 
 
 I often think it square, 
 So many little hurts we get 
 
 From corners here and there. 
 But one great truth in life I've found, 
 
 While journeying to the West, 
 The only folks who really wound 
 
 Are those we love the best. 
 
 The man you thoroughly despise 
 
 Can rouse your wrath, 'tis true; 
 Annoyance in your heart will rise 
 
 At things mere strangers do; 
 But those are only passing ills, 
 
 This rule all lives will prove : 
 The rankling wound which aches and thrills 
 
 Is dealt by hands we love. 
 243
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 The choicest garb, the sweetest grace, 
 
 Are oft to strangers shown; 
 The careless mien, the frowning face 
 
 Are given to our own. 
 We flatter those we scarcely know; 
 
 We please the fleeting guest; 
 And deal full many a thoughtless blow 
 
 To those who love us best. 
 
 Love does not grow on every tree, 
 
 Nor true hearts yearly bloom. 
 Alas, for those who only see 
 
 This cut across a tomb! 
 But, soon or late, the fact grows plain 
 
 To all through sorrow's test : 
 The only folks who give us pain 
 
 Are those we love the best. 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 OUR OWN 
 
 If I had known in the morning 
 
 How wearily all the day 
 The words unkind would trouble my mind 
 
 I said when you went away, 
 I had been more careful, darling, 
 
 Nor given you needless pain ; 
 But we vex our own with look and tone 
 
 We might never take back again. 
 244
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF CRITICISE 
 
 " For though in the quiet evening 
 
 You should give me the kiss of peace, 
 Yet it well might be that never for me 
 The pain of the heart should cease. 
 How many go forth at morning, 
 
 Who never come home at night; 
 And hearts have broken for harsh words 
 
 spoken 
 That sorrow could ne'er set right! 
 
 " We have careful thought for the stranger, 
 
 And smiles for the sometime guest. 
 But oft for our own the bitter tone, 
 
 Though we love our own the best. 
 Ah, lip with the curve impatient, 
 
 Ah, brow with the look of scorn. 
 'Twere a cruel fate were the night too late 
 
 To undo the work of morn ! " 
 
 Margaret Sangster. 
 
 WE DO NOT CARE 
 
 We do not care what the world may say 
 
 If those whom we love are true; 
 We do not mind the toil of the day 
 
 If we know in the dusk and the dew 
 There waits some one who will welcome us 
 
 As we come home to rest 
 Some friends who will say, " Dear heart, I 
 know 
 
 That to-day you have done your best." 
 245
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 We do not mind if the thorns are sharp, 
 
 Or the pathway is rough and steep ; 
 We do not mind if we plow and sow 
 
 For others to come and reap. 
 If we can but hear, when the twilight comes 
 
 And the red in the West grows gray, 
 Some dear voice whisper these words of 
 cheer: 
 
 " You have fought a good fight to-day." 
 
 For the heart don't care what the world may 
 
 say 
 
 If those whom it loves are true, 
 For 'twas ever and always the heart's own 
 
 way 
 
 To long for the love and rue. 
 You forget the gain, the loss, and the pain 
 
 That tortures your pulsing breast, 
 If there's one who always in sweet, blind 
 
 faith 
 Can say : " You have done your best." 
 
 Will D. Muse. 
 
 1 I've a sweetheart that's the merriest boy in all 
 the County Clare. 
 
 His whistle's like the blackbird's lute in Spring- 
 time's larchwoods fair, 
 
 An' if I'm troublin' any time, ' Be aisy, love,' 
 says Dan, 
 
 'An' if you can't be aisy, be as aisy as you can ! '
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF CRITICISE 
 
 " He'll up at dawn to find me the wee red cow 
 
 that strays, 
 His hand will make the butter come on weary 
 
 churnin' days. 
 An* when the world seems all awry, ' Be aisy, 
 
 love/ says Dan, 
 'An' if you can't be aisy, be as aisy as you can ! f 
 
 " He's such a way with all the girls, an' when 
 
 in buckled shoes 
 He steps the jig 'tis many a maid for partner 
 
 he might choose. 
 But tho' his smile's for every one, ' Be aisy, 
 
 love,' says Dan, 
 'An' if you can't be aisy, be as aisy as you can ! ' 
 
 " Oh, there's no one like my sweetheart all the 
 
 way thro' County Clare, 
 An' he says we'll just be married when the 
 
 May-bloom scents the air, 
 An' 'tis life will be all springtime, for ' Be aisy, 
 
 love,' says Dan, 
 'An' if you can't be aisy, be as aisy as you 
 
 can!*" 
 
 A good wife rose from her bed one morn 
 And thought, with a nervous dread, 
 
 Of the piles of clothes to be washed, and more 
 Than a dozen mouths to be fed. 
 *47
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 ' There's the meals to get for the men in the 
 
 field, 
 
 And the children to fix away 
 To school, and the milk to be skimmed and 
 
 churned ; 
 And all to be done this day/ 
 
 " It rained in the night, and all the wood 
 
 Was wet as it could be ; 
 There were puddings and pies to bake, besides 
 
 A loaf of cake for tea. 
 And the day was hot, and her aching head 
 
 Throbbed wearily as she said, 
 * If maidens but knew what good wives know, 
 They would not be in haste to wed ! ' 
 
 "Jennie, what do you think I told Ben Brown?' 
 
 Called the farmer from the well; 
 And a flush crept up to his bronzed brow, 
 
 And his eyes half-bashfully fell: 
 * It was this,' he said, and coming near 
 
 He smiled and stooping down, 
 Kissed her cheek * 'twas this, that you were 
 
 the best 
 And the dearest wife in town.' 
 
 The farmer went back to the field, and the 
 
 wife, 
 
 In a smiling, absent way, 
 Sang snatches of tender little songs 
 She'd not sung for many a day. 
 248
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF CRITICISE 
 
 And the pain in her head was gone, and the 
 clothes 
 
 Were white as the foam of the sea; 
 Her bread was light, and her butter was sweet, 
 
 And as golden as it could be. 
 
 'Just think,' the children all called in a breath, 
 
 ' Tom Wood has run off to sea ! 
 He wouldn't, I know, if he'd only had 
 
 As happy a home as we/ 
 The night came down, and the good wife 
 
 smiled 
 
 To herself, as she softly said: 
 ' 'Tis so sweet to labor for those we love 
 It's not strange that maids will wed ! ' " 
 
 ARE YOU SURE? 
 
 Are you sure you made her happy? 
 
 That the pleasant smile she wears 
 Doesn't mask a heart that's longing 
 
 For relief from household cares? 
 
 Are you sure her strength is equal 
 To the tasks that she must do 
 
 That she never needs assistance 
 Or encouragement from you? 
 
 Are you sure she doesn't miss it 
 The old love-light in your eye? 
 
 The tender words once spoken 
 In the days long, long gone by? 
 249
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Are you sure she's never lonely, 
 When you're absent from her side? 
 
 Ah ! the heart is crying always 
 For companionship denied. 
 
 Are you sure you understand her, 
 
 Or appreciate her worth? 
 Must you wait to be awakened, 
 
 When no longer she's on earth? 
 
 Hannah Leary Doppman. 
 
 THE WOMAN WHO UNDERSTANDS 
 
 She makes no plans for you to fulfill, 
 
 The woman who understands, 
 She sends no unwished grist to your mill, 
 
 The woman who understands. 
 'Tis the thought she brings 
 That sings and sings 
 
 Into the heart of you, 
 Till it flows and glows 
 And finally grows 
 
 Into visions of dreams come true. 
 
 She sits and smiles from her easy chair, 
 The woman who understands, 
 
 And as she listens your plans grow clear, 
 The woman who understands, 
 
 She lays no claim 
 
 For heart or brain, 
 250
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF CRITICISE 
 
 To what she is giving you, 
 'Tis her soul's fine grace 
 Gives you strength for the race, 
 
 The race that makes dreams come true. 
 Gertrude Cap en Whitney. 
 
 WHY DO WE FORGET? 
 
 When friends have done the loving deed 
 
 Or reached the kindly hand, 
 Or given help in time of need 
 
 Why do we sometimes stand 
 And check the flowing of the tears 
 
 And keep the lips firm set 
 Till love, indifference appears? 
 
 Oh why do we forget? 
 
 Do we forget? " Oh no! Oh no! 
 
 The kindly deed we keep 
 Within our hearts where'er we go, 
 
 Or waking, or asleep." 
 Then why not say the thankful word, 
 
 And let the tear-drops flow? 
 And show the depths within us stirred? 
 
 Oh why dissemble so? 
 
 We cannot tell, but this is true, 
 With souls that deepest feel; 
 
 We cannot do what we would do, 
 Unwilling to reveal 
 
 251
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 The measure of our sympathy, 
 
 And so we sometimes let 
 The friends we love most faithfully 
 
 Think that we can forget. 
 
 Julia Harris May. 
 
 WHEN I HAVE TIME 
 
 When I have time so many things I'll do 
 
 To make life happier and more fair 
 
 For those whose lives are crowded now wfth 
 
 care; 
 
 I'll help to lift them from their low despair, 
 When I have time. 
 
 When I have the time the friend I love so well 
 Shall know no more these weary toiling days; 
 I'll lead her feet in pleasant paths always, 
 And cheer her heart with words of sweetest 
 praise, 
 
 When I have time. 
 
 When you have time ! The friend you hold so 
 
 dear 
 May be beyond the reach of all your sweet 
 
 intent; 
 
 May never know that you so kindly meant 
 To fill her life with sweet content, 
 When you had time. 
 
 2Z2
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF CRITICISE 
 
 Now is the time ! Ah, friend, no longer wait 
 To scatter loving smiles and words of cheer 
 To those around whose lives are now so dear; 
 They may not need you in the coming year 
 Now is the time. 
 
 Medical Missionary Record. 
 
 GIVE THEM THE FLOWERS NOW 
 
 Closed eyes can't see the white roses; 
 
 Cold hands can't hold them, you know; 
 Breath that is stilled cannot gather 
 
 The odors that sweet from them blow. 
 Death, with a peace beyond dreaming 
 
 Its children of earth doth endow; 
 Life is the time we can help them, 
 
 So give them the flowers now. * 
 
 Here are the struggles and striving; 
 
 Here are the cares and the tears; 
 Now is the time to be smoothing 
 
 The frowns and the furrows and fears. 
 What to closed eyes are kind sayings? 
 
 What to hushed heart is deep vow? 
 Naught can avail after parting, 
 
 So give them the flowers now. 
 
 Just a kind word or a greeting, 
 Just a warm grasp or a smile 
 
 These are the flowers that will lighten 
 The burdens for many a mile. 
 253
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 After the journey is over 
 
 What is the use of them ; how 
 
 Can they carry them who must be carried? 
 O, give them the flowers now. 
 
 Blooms from the happy heart's garden 
 
 Plucked in the spirit of love ; 
 Blooms that are earthly reflexions 
 
 Of flowers that blossom above. 
 Words cannot tell what a measure 
 
 Of blessing such gifts will allow 
 To dwell in the lives of many, 
 
 So give them the flowers now. 
 
 Leigh M. Hodgef. 
 
 If you have a friend worth loving, 
 Love him. Yes, and let him know 
 
 That you love him, ere life's evening 
 Tinge his brow with sunset glow. 
 
 Why should good words ne'er be said 
 
 Of a friend till he is dead? 
 
 If you hear a song that thrills you, 
 
 Sung by any child of song, 
 Praise it. Do not let the singer 
 
 Wait deserved praises long. 
 Why should one who thrills your heart 
 Lack the joy you may impart? 
 254
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF CRITICISE 
 
 " If you see the hot tears falling 
 From a brother's weeping eyes, 
 
 Share them. And by kindly sharing 
 Own our kinship in the skies. 
 
 Why should any one be glad 
 
 When a brother's heart is sad? 
 
 " If a silvery laugh goes rippling 
 
 Through the sunshine on his face, 
 Share it. 'Tis the wise man's saying 
 
 For both grief and joy a place. 
 There's health and goodness in the mirth 
 In which an honest laugh has birth. 
 
 " If your work is made more easy 
 
 By a friendly, helping hand, 
 Say so. Speak out brave and truly 
 
 Ere the darkness veil the land. 
 Should a brother workman dear 
 Falter for a word of cheer? 
 
 " Scatter thus your seeds of kindness 
 
 All enriching as you go 
 Leave them. Trust the Harvest Giver; 
 
 He will make each seed to grow. 
 So, until the happy end, 
 Your life shall never lack a friend."
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 COMFORT ONE ANOTHER 
 Comfort one another, 
 For the way is growing dreary, 
 And the feet are often weary, 
 
 And the heart is oh, how sad I 
 There are heavy burdens bearing, 
 When it seems that none are caring, 
 
 And we half forget that ever we were glad. 
 
 Comfort one another, 
 
 With the hand-clasp close and tender, 
 
 With the sweetness love can render, 
 
 And the look of friendly eyes. 
 Do not wait with grace unspoken, 
 When life's daily bread is broken, 
 
 Gentle speech is oft like manna from the 
 skies. 
 
 Comfort one another, 
 
 There are words of music ringing 
 
 Down the ages sweet as singing, 
 
 Of the happy choirs above. 
 Ransomed saint and holy angel 
 Lift the grand and deep evangel. 
 
 There forever they are sounding: "God is 
 love." 
 
 Comfort one another, 
 
 By the hope of him who sought us 
 
 In our peril Him who bought us, 
 
 Paying for us with His blood. 
 By the faith that will not alter, 
 Trusting faith that shall not falter, 
 
 Leaning on the One who is " divinely good." 
 
 Marion M. Smyth. 
 256
 
 I WILL ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF CRITICISE 
 
 IF WE ONLY UNDERSTOOD 
 
 " If we knew the cares and trials, 
 
 Knew the efforts all in vain, 
 And the bitter disappointment, 
 
 Understood the loss and gain 
 Would the grim eternal roughness 
 
 Seem I wonder just the same? 
 Should we help where now we hinder? 
 
 Should we pity where we blame? 
 
 " Ah ! we judge each other harshly, 
 
 Knowing not life's hidden force 
 Knowing not the fount of action 
 
 Is less turbid at its source; 
 Seeing not amid the evil 
 
 All the golden grains of good; 
 And we'd love each other better 
 
 If we only understood. 
 
 " Could we judge all deeds by motives 
 
 That surround each other's lives, 
 See the naked heart and spirit, 
 
 Know what spur the action gives, 
 Often we would find it better, 
 
 Purer than we judge we should. 
 We should love each other better 
 
 If we only understood. 
 
 " Could we judge all deeds by motives, 
 
 See the good and bad within, 
 Often we should love the sinner 
 All the while we loathe the sin; 
 257
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Could we know the powers working 
 
 To o'erthrow integrity, 
 We should judge each other's errors 
 
 More with patient charity." 
 
 Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it; 
 
 Cast sweets into its cup whene'er you can. 
 No heart so hard but love at last may win it. 
 
 Love much. Men's souls contract with cold 
 
 suspicion ; 
 Shine on them with warm love and they 
 
 expand. 
 
 'Tis love, not creeds, that from a low condition 
 Leads mankind up to heights supreme and 
 
 grand. 
 
 Oh, that the world would see and understand ! 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 258
 
 I WILL BE A FRIEND TO 
 EVERY ONE 
 
 "The stranger on the highway, too y 
 Is brother unto me and you ."
 
 I WILL BE A FRIEND TO 
 EVERY ONE 
 
 THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD 
 
 There are hermit souls that live withdrawn 
 
 In the peace of their self-content; 
 There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart in a 
 
 fellowless firmament; 
 There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths 
 
 Where highways never ran; 
 But let me live by the side of the road 
 
 And be a friend to man. 
 
 Let me live in a house by the side of the road, 
 
 Where the race of men go by 
 The men who are good and the men who are bad, 
 
 As good and as bad as I. 
 I would not sit in the scorner's seat, 
 
 Or hurl the cynic's ban ; 
 Let me live in a house by the side of the road 
 
 And be a friend to man. 
 
 I see from my house by the side of the road, 
 
 By the side of the highway of life, 
 The men who press with the ardor of hope, 
 
 The men who are faint with the strife. 
 261
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 But I turn not away from their smiles nor their 
 
 tears 
 
 Both parts of an infinite plan; 
 Let me live in my house by the side of the road 
 And be a friend to man. 
 
 Sam Walter Foss. 
 
 THE SALT OF THE EARTH 
 
 " There's a lot that's seductive in titles and rank, 
 
 In station and pomp and degree, 
 And crosses and stars on a nobleman's breast 
 
 Are mighty attractive to see. 
 It comforts most people straight through in this 
 life 
 
 To think that their blood's clear blue, 
 But the salt of the earth is its common folk still, 
 
 Honest and simple and true. 
 
 " They hold fast to justice and freedom and right, 
 
 They're virtuous, manful and strong, 
 And it's ever their mission to straighten things 
 out 
 
 When the world gets entangled in wrong; 
 Not always we're willing to credit them up 
 
 With the glorious things that they do, 
 But the salt of the earth is its common folk still, 
 
 Honest and simple and true." 
 262
 
 I WELL BE A FRIEND TO EVERY ONE 
 
 Have you had a kindness shown? 
 
 Pass it on. 
 'Twas not given for you alone 
 
 Pass it on. 
 
 Let it travel down the years, 
 Let it wipe another's tears, 
 Till in Heaven the deed appears 
 
 Pass it on." 
 
 Learn that to love is the one way to know 
 
 Or God or man : it is not love received 
 That maketh man to know the inner life 
 Of them that love him ; his own love bestowed 
 
 Shall do it. 
 
 Jean Ingelow. 
 
 Pour out thy love like the rush of a river 
 Wasting its waters forever and ever; 
 Through the burnt sands that reward not the 
 
 giver 
 
 Silent or songful, thou nearest the sea. 
 Scatter thy life as the summer shower's pouring! 
 What if no bird through the pearl-rain is 
 
 soaring-? 
 
 What if no blossom looks upward adoring? 
 Look to the life that was lavished for thee. 
 
 Rose Terry Cook, 
 263
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 May I reach 
 
 That purest Heaven be to other souls 
 The cup of strength in some great agony, 
 Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, 
 Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, 
 Be that sweet presence of a good diffused, 
 And in diffusion ever more intense ! 
 So shall I join the choir invisible, 
 Whose music is the gladness of the world. 
 
 George Eliot. 
 
 " Go forth in life, O friend, not seeking love; 
 
 A mendicant that with imploring eye 
 And outstretched hand asks of the passers-by 
 The alms his strong necessities may move. 
 For such poor love, to pity near allied, 
 Thy generous spirit may not stoop and wait 
 A suppliant, whose prayer may be denied, 
 
 Like a spurned beggar's at a palace gate; 
 But thy heart's affluence, lavish, uncontrolled 
 The largess of thy love, give full and free, 
 As monarchs in their progress scatter gold; 
 
 And be thy heart like the exhaustless sea, 
 That must its wealth of cloud and dew bestow, 
 Though tributary streams or ebb or flow." 
 
 a6 4
 
 I WILL BE A FRIEND TO EVERY ONE 
 
 TENDERNESS 
 
 Men called him hard this man of stern affairs 
 And breathed his name in cursings more than 
 prayers. 
 
 I saw him kneel within a public place 
 To kiss the tear-drops from a baby's face. 
 
 Men called him hard, and yet that one caress 
 Made him to me the soul of tenderness. 
 
 Douglas Malloch. 
 
 The scent of a blossom from Eden! 
 
 The flower was not given to me, 
 But it freshened my spirit forever, 
 
 As it passed on its way to thee! 
 
 In my soul a lingering music: 
 
 The song was not meant for me, 
 But I listen, and listen, and wonder 
 
 To whom could it lovelier be. 
 
 The sounds and the scents that float by us 
 They cannot tell whither they go; 
 
 Yet however it fails of its errand, 
 
 Love makes the world sweeter I know. 
 
 I know that love never is wasted, 
 
 Nor truth, nor the breath of a prayer; 
 And the thought that goes forth as a blessing 
 
 Must live as joy in the air. 
 
 Lucy Larcom. 
 265
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 " If I can stop one heart from breaking, 
 
 I shall not live in vain ; 
 If I can ease one life the aching, 
 
 Or cool one pain, 
 Or help one fainting robin 
 
 Unto his nest again, 
 I shall not live in vain." 
 
 LET ME BE REMEMBERED BY WHAT 
 I HAVE DONE" 
 
 ' Up and away, like the dew of the morning, 
 
 Soaring from earth to its home in the sun, 
 So let me steal away, gently and lovingly, 
 Only remembered by what I have done. 
 
 ' My name and my place and my tomb, all for- 
 gotten, 
 
 The brief race of time well and patiently run, 
 So let me pass away, peacefully, silently, 
 Only remembered by what I have done. 
 
 ' Gladly away from this toil would I hasten, 
 
 Up to the crown that for me has been won; 
 Unthought of by man, in rewards or in praises, 
 Only remembered by what I have done. 
 
 ' Up and away, like the odors at sunset, 
 
 That sweeten the twilight, as darkness 
 
 comes on; 
 
 So be my life a thing felt, but not noticed, 
 And I but remembered by what I have done. 
 266
 
 I WILL BE A FRIEND TO EVERY ONE 
 
 " Yes, like the fragrance that wanders in fresh- 
 ness, 
 When the flowers that it came from are 
 
 closed up and gone, 
 
 So would I be to this world's weary dwellers, 
 Only remembered by what I have done. 
 
 " Needs there the praise of the love-written 
 
 record, 
 The name and the epitaph graved on the 
 
 stone? 
 The things we have lived for, let them be our 
 
 story. 
 
 We ourselves but remembered by what we 
 have done. 
 
 " I need not be missed, if my life has been 
 
 bearing 
 (As its summer and autumn moved silently 
 
 on) 
 The bloom, and the fruit, and the seed of its 
 
 season, 
 
 I shall still be remembered by what I have 
 done. 
 
 " I need not be missed, if another succeed me, 
 To reap down those fields which in spring I 
 
 have sown; 
 He who ploughed and who sowed is not missed 
 
 by the reaper, 
 He is only remembered by what he has done." 
 
 267
 
 PARTY 
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE 
 CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 Come to me, O ye children ! 
 
 And whisper in my ear 
 What the birds and the winds are singing 
 
 In your sunny atmosphere, 
 
 HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE 
 CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 What the leaves are to the forest, 
 
 With light and air for food, 
 Ere their sweet and tender juices, 
 
 Have been hardened into wood, 
 
 That to the world are children ; 
 
 Through them it feels the glow 
 Of a brighter and sunnier climate 
 
 Than reaches the trunks below. 
 
 Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 THE CHILD'S HEART 
 
 The heart of a child, 
 
 Like the heart of a flower, 
 Has a smile for the sun 
 
 And a tear for the shower: 
 Oh, innocent hours 
 
 With wonder beguiled 
 Oh, heart like a flower's 
 
 In the heart of a child ! 
 271
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 The heart of a child, 
 
 Like the heart of a bird, 
 With raptures of music 
 
 Is flooded and stirred; 
 Oh, songs without words, 
 
 Oh, melodies wild 
 Oh, heart like a bird's 
 
 In the heart of a child! 
 
 The heart of a child, 
 
 Like the heart of the Spring, 
 Is full of the hope 
 
 Of what Summer shall bring: 
 Oh, glory of things 
 
 In a world undefiled 
 Oh, heart like the Spring's 
 
 In the heart of a child ! 
 
 Arthur Austin-Jackson. 
 
 CHILDREN 
 
 Come to me, O ye Children ! 
 
 For I hear you at your play. 
 And the questions that perplexed me 
 
 Have vanished quite away. 
 
 Ye open the eastern windows, 
 
 That look toward the sun, 
 Where the thoughts are singing swallows 
 
 And the brooks of morning run. 
 272
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 Your hearts are the birds and the sunshine, 
 In your thoughts the brooklets flow, 
 
 But in mine the wind of Autumn 
 And the first fall of the snow. 
 
 Ah! what would the world be to us 
 
 If the Children were no more? 
 We should dread the desert behind us 
 
 Worse than the dark before. 
 
 For what are our contrivings, 
 
 And the wisdom of our books, 
 When compared with your caresses, 
 
 And the gladness of your looks? 
 
 Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 TIDINGS 
 
 A baby is coming! 
 
 Coming to me ! 
 A man-child, or maid-child, 
 
 O which shall it be? 
 For which does my heart cry 
 
 In its lone, childless needs, 
 For strength, or for tenderness, 
 
 Which supersedes? 
 
 I know not, I list not ! 
 
 Coming to me, 
 A man-child, a maid-child, 
 
 God's will, it shall be. 
 273
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 'Twas He heard my deep cry 
 For this sweet, precious boon, 
 
 Bring strength, or bring tenderness, 
 Joy cometh soon. 
 
 A baby is coming ! 
 
 Coming to me ! 
 A man-child, or maid-child, 
 
 Whiche'er thou mayst be, 
 Maternity's rich love 
 
 Is waiting for thee. 
 Then come, O heart beautiful ! 
 
 Hasten to me. 
 
 Mrs. J. B. Smith. 
 
 God gave to earth a little human child, 
 
 Who looked into his face, and, looking, smiled. 
 
 Straightway his own smiled back; and by this 
 
 grace 
 Heaven smiles forever in a baby's face! 
 
 Gertrude E. Heath. 
 
 And O what time I wondering wait 
 
 To see my flower unfolding, 
 Almost I wish Time ne'er could touch 
 The baby-bud I'm holding. 
 
 Eugene Field. 
 274
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 ONLY A BABY 
 
 Something to live for came to the place, 
 
 Something to die for, maybe ; 
 Something to give even sorrow a grace 
 
 And yet it was only a baby ! 
 
 Cooing and laughter and gurgles and cries, 
 
 Dimples for tenderest kisses; 
 Chaos of hopes and of raptures and sighs, 
 
 Chaos of fears and of blisses. 
 
 Last year, like all years, the rose and the thorn ; 
 
 This year a wilderness, maybe; 
 But heaven stooped under the roof on the morn 
 
 That it brought there only a baby. 
 
 Harriet Prescott Spofford. 
 
 THE BABY 
 
 Where did you come from, baby dear? 
 Out of the everywhere into the here. 
 
 Where did you get your eyes so blue? 
 Out of the sky as I came through. 
 
 What makes the light in them sparkle and spin? 
 Some of the starry spikes left in. 
 
 Where did you get that little tear? 
 I found it waiting when I got here. 
 275
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 What makes your forehead so smooth and high? 
 A soft hand stroked it as I went by. 
 
 What makes your cheek like a warm white rose? 
 Something better than any one knows. 
 
 Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss? 
 Three angels gave me at once a kiss. 
 
 Where did you get that pearly ear? 
 God spoke, and it came out to hear. 
 
 Where did you get those arms and hands? 
 Love made itself into hooks and bands. 
 
 Feet, whence did you come, you darling things? 
 From the same box as the cherub's wings. 
 
 How did they all just come to be you? 
 God thought about me, and so I grew. 
 
 But how did you come to us, you dear? 
 God thought of you, and so I am here. 
 
 George McDonald. 
 
 HER ROYAL LITTLENESS 
 
 Just a tiny morsel, 
 
 Delicately sweet 
 From her golden halo 
 
 To her little feet. 
 276
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 She is fair and dainty, 
 
 Eyes of bluest blue, 
 Hands of pinkest wax-work, 
 
 (Nothing much to do.) 
 
 Ears too small for hearing, 
 
 Mouth a sweet, wild rose, 
 Cheeks that steal our kisses, 
 
 Very saucy nose. 
 
 She's such a little woman ! 
 
 Perhaps it's better so, 
 She creeps into the coldest heart, 
 
 And keeps it warm, you know. 
 
 Hummel Budd. 
 
 TWO LOVERS 
 
 Whose baby is loveliest? 
 
 Mother's own, 
 All round the world north, south, east, west- 
 
 Hers alone! 
 For whether it be a Chinese tot, 
 
 With eyes aslant and a shaven crown, 
 Or a dear little girl of the Land of the Free, 
 
 Or a toddling Prince in Londontown, 
 Or the one rare treasure a Soudan slave 
 
 Hugs to her heart, all wee and brown 
 Each in its mother's gentle pride 
 Is fairer than all the world beside. 
 
 277
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Whose mother is loved the best? 
 
 Baby's own. 
 She whose cheek was first caressed 
 
 She alone. 
 For whether she be an Eskimo, 
 
 Or colored mammy, or stately queen, 
 Or a wandering organ grinder's wife, 
 
 Jingling and beating her tambourine, 
 In every land where children are 
 
 The baby eyes from their deep, serene 
 Gaze, rapture bound by the tender grace 
 In the mother's bended, love-lit face. 
 
 Woman's Home Companion. 
 
 LITTLE BROWN BABY 
 
 Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes, 
 
 Come to yo' pappy an' set on his knee. 
 What you been doin', suh makin' san' pies? 
 
 Look at dat bib you's ez du'ty ez me. 
 Look at dat mouf dat's merlasses, I bet; 
 
 Come hyeah, Maria, an' wipe off his han's. 
 Bees gwine to ketch you an' eat you up, yit, 
 
 Bern* so sticky an' sweet goodness lan's ! 
 
 Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes, 
 
 Who's pappy's darlin' an' who's pappy's chile? 
 Who is it all de day nevah once tries 
 
 Fu' to be cross, er once loses dat smile? 
 Whah did you git dem teef ? My, you's a scamp ! 
 
 Whah did dat dimple come fom in yo' chin? 
 Pappy do' know you I b'lieves you's a tramp : 
 
 Mammy, dis hyeah's some ol' straggler got in ! 
 278
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 Let's th'ow him outen de do' in de san', 
 
 We do' want stragglers a-layin' 'roun' hyeah; 
 Let's gin him 'way to de big buggah-man; 
 
 I know he's hidin' erroun hyeah right neah. 
 Buggah-man, buggah-man, come in de do', 
 
 Hyeah's a bad boy you kin have fu' to eat 
 Mammy an' pappy do' want him no mo', 
 
 Swaller him down f'om his haid to his feet! 
 
 Dah, now, I thought dat you'd hug me up close. 
 
 Go back, ol' buggah, you shan't have dis boy. 
 He ain't no tramp, ner no straggler, of co'se; 
 
 He's pappy's pa'dner an' playmate an' joy. 
 Come to you' pallet now go to yo' res', 
 
 Wisht you could allus know ease an' clear 
 
 skies; 
 Wisht you could stay jes' a chile on my breas' 
 
 Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes! 
 
 Paul Laurence Dunbar. 
 
 BABY GOES TO SLEEPY TOWN 
 
 Baby goes to Sleepy Town a dozen times a day, 
 But foolish little Baby-heart can never find the 
 way. 
 
 Mother has to go along and lead her by the hand 
 All the way through Drowsy Lane and on to 
 Slumber Land. 
 
 279
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Oh, my little Baby-heart learn the way to go ! 
 Mother has such lots to do she can't run to and 
 
 fro. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Mother, dear, I never saw the way to Sleepy 
 
 Town. 
 Don't you know my eyes are shut before you lay 
 
 me down? 
 
 Margaret Sutton Briscoe. 
 
 LULLABY 
 
 Little one, close those shining eyes; 
 
 'Tis late and the daylight flies 
 
 Even wee crickets have ended their song 
 And to sleep they have surely gone. 
 
 So sleep, dear; sleep, and do not cry. 
 
 Hush, dear ! yes, hush-a-by. 
 
 Little one, warm in my arms to-night 
 
 Hush, dear, thy restless cry 
 Out in their nests, bright eyes shut tight, 
 
 The little brown birdies lie. 
 So sleep, dear; sleep, and do not cry. 
 Hush, dear ! yes, hush-a-by. 
 
 Little one, now the soft, dark night 
 
 Has covered the sky so bright 
 
 Baby must sleep yes, dear, that's right, 
 We'll rest till the morning light. 
 
 So sleep, dear; sleep, and do not cry. 
 
 Hush, dear; yes, hush-a-by. 
 
 Bessie Warren Campbell. 
 280
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 JUNE SLUMBER SONG 
 
 Shut your blue eyes, my pretty one, 
 
 My May blossom, my sweet; 
 The roses bend to touch your face, 
 
 The daisies kiss your feet. 
 
 Shut your bright eyes, my little bird, 
 
 My bonny nestling wee, 
 While robins sing sweet lullabies 
 
 In yonder apple-tree. 
 
 Shut your sweet eyes, my precious lamb, 
 
 On mother's bosom sleep, 
 While white-robed angels, hovering near, 
 
 Their tireless watches keep. 
 
 Mabel Cornelia Matson. 
 
 A CHILD'S EVENSONG 
 
 The sun is weary, for he ran 
 So far and fast to-day; 
 The birds are weary, for who sang 
 So many songs as they? 
 The bees and butterflies at last 
 Are tired out, for just think too 
 How many gardens through the day 
 Their little wings have fluttered through. 
 And so, as all tired people do, 
 281
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 They've gone to lay their sleepy heads 
 Deep, deep in warm and happy beds. 
 The sun has shut his golden eye 
 And gone to sleep beneath the sky. 
 The birds and butterflies and bees 
 Have all crept into flowers and trees, 
 And all lie quiet, still as mice, 
 Till morning comes like father's voice. 
 
 So Geoffrey, Owen, Phyllis, you 
 Must sleep away till morning too. 
 Close little eyes, down little heads, 
 And sleep sleep sleep in happy beds. 
 
 Richard LeGallienne. 
 
 The gray shadows bend 
 
 And play-time must end, 
 
 The round, red sun has passed over, 
 
 The birds seek their rest 
 
 In the shady home nest, 
 
 And the bees have left the clover. 
 
 Our dream-bark we take 
 
 Across slumber-lake, 
 
 No thought of harm we borrow; 
 
 With sleepy delight 
 
 We now say, " Good-night, 
 
 God keep us till to-morrow." 
 
 . A. F. 
 282
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 LULLABY 
 
 The golden dreamboat's ready, all her silken sails 
 
 are spread, 
 And the breeze is gently blowing to the fairy 
 
 port of Bed, 
 And the fairy's captain's waiting while the busy 
 
 sandman flies 
 With the silver dust of slumber closing every 
 
 baby's eyes. 
 
 Oh, the night is rich with moonlight and the sea 
 is calm with peace 
 
 And the angels fly to guard you and their watch 
 shall never cease, 
 
 And the fairies there await you, they have splen- 
 did dreams to spin; 
 
 You shall hear them gayly singing as the dream- 
 boat's putting in. 
 
 Like the ripple of the water does the dreamboat's 
 
 whistle blow, 
 Only baby ears can catch it when it conies the 
 
 time to go, 
 Only little ones may journey on so wonderful a 
 
 ship 
 And go drifting off to slumber with no care to 
 
 mar the trip. 
 
 Oh, the little eyes are heavy but the little soul 
 
 is light, 
 It shall never know a sorrow or a terror through 
 
 the night. 
 
 283
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 And at last when dawn is breaking and the 
 
 dreamboat's trip is o'er, 
 You shall wake to find the mother smiling over 
 
 you once more. 
 
 Edgar A. Guest. 
 
 From " The Path to Home; " 
 
 copyrighted, 1919, by The Reilly & Lee Co. 
 
 CHILD AND MOTHER 
 
 Mother-My-Love, if you'll give me your 
 
 hand, 
 And go where I ask you to wander, 
 
 1 will lead you away to a beautiful land 
 The Dreamland that's waiting out yonder. 
 
 We'll walk in a sweet-posie garden out there 
 Where moonlight and starlight are stream- 
 ing 
 
 And the flowers and the birds are filling the air 
 With the fragrance and music of dreaming. 
 
 There'll be no little tired-out boy to undress, 
 
 No questions or cares to perplex you; 
 There'll be no little bruises or bumps to caress, 
 
 Nor patching of stockings to vex you. 
 For I'll rock you away on a silver-dew stream, 
 
 And sing you asleep when you're weary, 
 And no one shall know of our beautiful dream 
 
 But you and your own little dearie. 
 284
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 And when I am tired I'll nestle my head 
 
 In the bosom that's soothed me so often, 
 And the wide-awake stars shall sing in my 
 
 stead 
 
 A song which our dreaming shall soften. 
 So, Mother-My-Love, let me take your dear 
 
 hand, 
 And away through the starlight we'll 
 
 wander 
 
 Away through the mist to the beautiful land 
 The Dreamland that's waiting out yonder! 
 
 Eugene Field. 
 
 From " The Poems of Eugene Field; " copyrighted, 1910, by 
 Julia Sutherland Field; published by Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 By permission of the publishers. 
 
 "GRANDPA" AND "BABY" 
 
 Grandpa's sitting in his arm-chair 
 With the baby on his knee ; 
 
 But the blue eyes shine with mischief: 
 Loth to go to sleep is she. 
 
 N 
 
 So he sits and rocks her gently, 
 Swaying softly to and fro, 
 
 Singing songs his mother sang him, 
 Many, many years ago. 
 
 By and by the eyes grow dimmer; 
 
 Baby sings her " sleepy song "; 
 Grandpa, smiling as he listens, 
 
 Thinks his task will not be long. 
 285
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Soon the eyes, with mischief dancing, 
 From his loving gaze are hid; 
 
 For an angel, with soft kisses, 
 Has sealed down each heavy lid. 
 
 Still he sits and holds her closely, 
 Wishing that his loving arm 
 
 Might be ever near, to shield her 
 From all evil, and all harm. 
 
 And he prays the gentle Savior 
 That she in His paths may tread; 
 
 Prays that Heaven's choicest blessings 
 Fall upon her golden head. 
 
 Grandpa's head bows low and lower, 
 The young face is near the old; 
 
 On his arm the threads of silver 
 Mingle with the locks of gold. 
 
 In the room, so still and quiet, 
 Angel eyes their vigils keep; 
 
 Bending o'er, and safely guarding 
 Babe and Grandpa both asleep. 
 
 Annie S. Cornell. 
 
 LOVIN' TIME 
 
 Oh, the day-time's good for play-time 
 An' the night-time's good for rest, 
 
 But just between the two there comes 
 The time I love the best. 
 286
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 Then mother takes the rocking chair 
 
 An' in her lap I climb, 
 An' put my arms around her neck, 
 
 'Cause that's our lovin' time. 
 
 I tell her all my troubles, 
 An' all my secrets, too, 
 For she never laughs at me or nags 
 
 Like some boys' mothers do. 
 
 / 
 
 But if I've been good, we're happy, 
 An' if I've been bad, I'm bound 
 
 To tell her all about it 
 
 When our lovin' time comes round. 
 
 An' sometimes I get thinking 
 
 That maybe, after all, 
 I'd rather be a little chap 
 
 Than grow up big an' tall. 
 
 For then I couldn't snuggle down 
 
 In mother's lap like this 
 Or tell her all that bothered me; 
 
 There's lots of things I'd miss. 
 
 I'd have to go up-stairs alone, 
 And things would not seem right 
 
 If mother didn't hear my prayers 
 An' tuck the covers tight. 
 
 I'd miss our happy twilight talks, 
 
 For then I couldn't climb 
 Up in her lap, but most of all 
 
 I'd miss our lovin' time. 
 
 Cincinnati Enquirer. 
 287
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 KISSING TIME 
 
 "Tis when the lark goes soaring 
 
 And the bee is at the bud, 
 When lightly dancing zephyrs 
 
 Sing over field and flood; 
 When all sweet things in nature 
 
 Seem joyfully achime 
 'Tis then I wake my darling, 
 
 For it is kissing time! 
 
 Go, pretty lark, a-soaring, 
 
 And suck your sweets, O bee; 
 Sing, O ye winds of summer, 
 
 Your songs to mine and me; 
 For with your song and rapture 
 
 Cometh the moment when 
 It's half-past kissing time 
 
 And time to kiss again ! 
 
 So so the days go fleeting 
 
 Like golden fancies free, 
 And every day that cometh 
 
 Is full of sweets for me ; 
 And sweetest are those moments 
 
 My darling comes to climb 
 Into my lap to mind me 
 
 That it is kissing time. 
 
 Sometimes, maybe, he wanders 
 A heedless, aimless way 
 
 Sometimes, maybe, he loiters 
 In pretty, prattling play; 
 288
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 But presently bethinks him 
 
 And hastens to me then, 
 For it's half-past kissing time 
 
 And time to kiss again! 
 
 Eugene Field. 
 
 From " The Poems of Eugene Field; " copyrighted, 1910, by 
 Julia Sutherland Field; published by Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 By permission of the publishers. 
 
 NO BABY IN THE HOUSE 
 
 No baby in the house, I know 
 
 'Tis far too nice and clean. 
 No toys by careless fingers strewn, 
 
 Upon the floors are seen. 
 No finger-marks are on the panes, 
 
 No scratches on the chairs; 
 No wooden men set up in rows, 
 
 Or marshalled off in pairs; 
 No little stockings to be darned, 
 
 All ragged at the toes ; 
 No pile of mending to be done, 
 
 Made up of baby-clothes; 
 No little troubles to be soothed; 
 
 No little hands to fold 
 No grimy fingers to be washed; 
 
 No stories to be told; 
 No tender kisses to be given; 
 
 No nicknames, " Dove " and " Mouse " 
 No merry frolics after tea 
 
 No baby in the house ! 
 
 Clara G. Dolliver. 
 289
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 TIED DOWN 
 
 " They tie you down," a woman said, 
 Whose cheeks should have been flam- 
 ing red 
 With shame to speak of children so. 
 
 " When babies come you cannot go 
 In search of pleasure with your friends 
 And all your happy wandering ends. 
 The things you like you cannot do 
 For babies make a slave of you." 
 
 I looked at her and said : " 'Tis true 
 That children make a slave of you, 
 And tie you down with many a knot, 
 But have you never thought to what 
 It is of happiness and pride 
 That little babies have you tied? 
 Do you not miss the greater joys 
 That come with little girls and boys? 
 
 " They tie you down to laughter rare, 
 To hours of smiles and hours of care, 
 To nights of watching and to fears, 
 Sometimes they tie you down to tears 
 And then repay you with a smile 
 And make your trouble all worth while. 
 They tie you fast to chubby feet 
 And cheeks of pink and kisses sweet. 
 
 " They fasten you with cords of love 
 To God divine who reigns above. 
 They tie you, whereso'er you roam 
 Unto the little place called home, 
 290
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 And over sea or railroad track 
 They tug at you to bring you back. 
 The happiest people in the town 
 Are those the babies have tied down. 
 
 " Oh, go your selfish way and free 
 But hampered I would rather be, 
 Yes, rather than a kingly crown 
 I would be, what you term, tied down ; 
 Tied down to dancing eyes and charms, 
 Held fast by chubby, dimpled arms, 
 The fettered slave of girl and boy, 
 And win from them earth's finest joy." 
 
 Edgar 'A. Guest. 
 
 From " The Path to Home; " 
 copyrighted, 1919, by The Reilly & Lee Co. 
 
 TIRED MOTHERS 
 
 A little elbow leans upon your knee, 
 
 Your tired knee that has so much to bear; 
 A child's dear eyes are looking lovingly 
 
 From underneath a thatch of tangled hair. 
 Perhaps you do not heed the velvet touch 
 
 Of warm, moist fingers holding yours so 
 
 tight, 
 You do not prize this blessing overmuch ; 
 
 You are almost too tired to pray to-night. 
 291
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 " But is it blessedness? A year ago 
 I did not see it as I do to-day 
 We are all so dull and thankless, and too 
 
 slow 
 
 To catch the sunshine till it slips away. 
 And now it seems surpassing strange to me 
 That, while I wore the badge of mother- 
 hood, 
 I did not kiss more oft and tenderly 
 
 The little child that brought me only 
 good. 
 
 " And if, some night, when you sit down to 
 
 rest, 
 You miss this elbow from your tired 
 
 knee 
 This restless, curly head from off your 
 
 breast, 
 
 This lisping tongue that chatters con- 
 stantly ; 
 If from your own the dimpled hands had 
 
 slipped, 
 And ne'er would nestle in your palm 
 
 again ; 
 
 If the white feet into their grave had tripped, 
 I could not blame you for your heartache 
 then. 
 
 " I wonder so that mothers ever fret 
 
 At little children clinging to their gowns ; 
 Or that the footprints, when the days are 
 
 wet, 
 
 Are ever black enough to make them 
 frown. 
 
 292
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 If I could find a little muddy boot, 
 
 Or cap or jacket on my chamber floor; 
 
 If I could kiss a rosy, restless foot, 
 
 And hear it patter in my home once 
 more 
 
 If I could mend a broken cart to-day, 
 
 To-morrow make a kite to reach the sky 
 There is no woman in God's world could say 
 
 She was more blissfully content than I. 
 But, ah ! the dainty pillow next my own 
 
 Is never rumpled by a shining head; 
 My singing birdling from its nest has flown; 
 
 The little boy I used to kiss is dead ! " 
 
 A LONELY SPOT 
 
 The dreariest spot in all the world, 
 
 I care not what the zone, 
 Is home, sweet home, in summer-time 
 
 When I am there alone. 
 The world is fair, the lawns are green, 
 
 The sun pours down its gold, 
 But in my lonely den I sit 
 
 In cheerlessness and cold. 
 
 I wander up and down the stair, 
 
 I go from room to room, 
 And everything so silent is 
 
 My heart is filled with gloom. 
 293
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 The books, the treasures of my boy, 
 Confront me everywhere, 
 
 And mutely speak, but he, dear lad, 
 The little chap's not there. 
 
 " I look into the nursery 
 
 And find it span and spick: 
 To see no toys upon the floor 
 
 Doth make me mortal sick! 
 And when I turn to go, and spy 
 
 Two empty little beds, 
 It gives my heart a twist to miss 
 
 Two curly little heads ! 
 
 " And in another room, near by, 
 
 To see no patterns there, 
 No scissors and no cutting-board, 
 
 No needles in the chair, 
 No cotton threads upon the mat, 
 
 No spools of silk about, 
 The tears that well up in my eyes 
 
 Suggest a waterspout. 
 
 " Egad ! 'tis not a pleasant thing, 
 As some good folks suggest, 
 To send one's family away 
 
 And stay at home for rest. 
 There's lots of quiet to be had, 
 
 But give me rather noise, 
 As long as quiet can't be had 
 Along with little boys." 
 294
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 MY COUNTRY BOY 
 
 Where daisies and buttercups bloom in the fields, 
 
 Where, 'midst willow trees, ripples along 
 A mountain creek, prancing and dancing with 
 glee, 
 
 Humming a soft little song, 
 Where over the mountains in beauty sublime 
 
 Awakens the light of each morn, 
 To smile on sweet meadows and forest-clad hills, 
 
 There my baby, my darling, was born. 
 
 And here in this valley of sunshine and peace 
 Shall he grow to be healthy and strong; 
 
 Amidst daisies and buttercups romp in the fields, 
 And rival the birds in their song. 
 
 He shall climb o'er the mountains, and dream by 
 
 the brook, 
 A true child of Nature to be; 
 
 His eyes full of laughter, his heart full of mirth, 
 
 Barefooted and happy and free ! 
 
 Hebe. 
 
 FIRST TROUSERS 
 
 Little man, little man, 
 
 With your little trousers blue, 
 I wish that I were happy, 
 
 My little man, like you. 
 Is there ever anything in life 
 
 That gives such pleasure true 
 As this first pair of trousers, 
 
 So stunning and so new?
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Little man, little man, 
 
 You with sturdy stride and bold, 
 Pray, have you seen my baby boy? 
 
 He passed this way, I'm told. 
 His little dress is fresh and white, 
 
 His clustering curls are gold 
 He's naught else but a baby, 
 
 For he's but three years old ! 
 
 Little man, little man, 
 
 Why, can it really be? 
 When I ask if you've seen him, 
 
 You say that you are he? 
 You, with your stride and trousers, 
 
 And magic pockets three? 
 "Tis quite hard to believe it, 
 
 You look so strange to me. 
 
 Susie Dawson Brown. 
 
 A CHANGE OF HEART 
 
 " I care for nobody, 
 
 And nobody cares for me," 
 Sang Tommy at play, in the sweet new 
 
 hay, 
 Where nobody could see. 
 
 So his mother made the fire, 
 
 And searched for the old hen's nest, 
 
 While the sun from its place high overhead 
 Went sliding into the west. 
 296
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 She filled the water-pail, 
 And picked the berries for tea, 
 
 And wondered down in her tender heart 
 Where her little boy could be. 
 
 Alone in the dim old barn, 
 
 Tommy grew tired of play, 
 When the cows came home and the shad- 
 ows fell 
 
 Over the new-mown hay. 
 
 So into the kitchen he ran, 
 
 With a noisy hi! yi! yi! 
 His mother had made him a frosted cake; 
 
 She had made him a saucer pie. 
 
 So he gave her a loving hug 
 " I will help next time," said he. 
 
 I care for somebody, 
 
 And somebody cares for me." 
 
 Mary F. Butts. 
 
 BOYS 
 
 Now if any one has an easy time 
 
 In this world of push and pull, 
 It is not the boy of the family, 
 
 For his hands are always full. 
 I'd like to ask who fills the stove? 
 
 Where is the girl that could? 
 Who brings in water, lights the fire, 
 
 And splits the kindling wood? 
 297
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 And who is it that cleans the walks 
 
 After hours of snowing? 
 In summer who keeps down the weeds 
 
 By diligently hoeing? 
 And who must harness the faithful horse, 
 
 When the girls would ride about? 
 And who must clean the carriage? 
 
 The boy, you'll own, no doubt. 
 
 And who does the many other things 
 
 Too numerous to mention? 
 The boy is the " general utility man," 
 
 And really deserves a pension! 
 Friends, just praise this boy sometimes, 
 
 When he does his very best; 
 And don't always want the easy chair 
 
 When he's taking a little rest. 
 
 Don't let him always be the last 
 
 To see the new magazine; 
 And sometimes let the boy be heard, 
 
 As well as to be seen. 
 That boys are far from perfect, 
 
 Is understood by all; 
 But they have hearts, remember, 
 
 For " men are boys grown tall." 
 
 And when a boy has been working 
 
 His level best for days, 
 It does him good, I tell you, 
 
 To have some hearty praise. 
 298
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 He's not merely a combination 
 
 Of muddy boots and noise, 
 And he likes to be looked upon 
 
 As one of the family joys. 
 
 The Gem. 
 
 A BOY'S LAMENT 
 
 I don't like grown folks very much; 
 
 'Pears like they don't like me; 
 In nearly ev'rything I do 
 
 Some fault they're sure to see. 
 
 If I'm playin' in my play-room, 
 
 As quiet as can be, 
 They think I'm up to mischief an* 
 
 Come runnin' up to see. 
 
 An' if I run an' laugh an' shout 
 
 They send me off to bed, 
 'Cause it almost drives 'em crazy, 
 
 An' nearly splits their head. 
 
 I get all tired out an* cross 
 
 A tryin' to be good, 
 An' hate to hear of children who 
 
 Do just the things they should. 
 
 I've got er dandy sled, er course, 
 
 An' heaps er other toys, 
 But don't have no fun using 'em 
 
 Like all the other boys. 
 299
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 'Cause ma's so feared that I'll get cold, 
 
 I don't get out till spring, 
 An' then the snow's all mushy like 
 
 An' marbles is the thing. 
 
 In summertime it's 'bout as bad; 
 
 The things I want to do 
 Are mostly al'ays just the ones 
 
 She doesn't want me to. 
 
 Yer see, my ma, she never was 
 
 A little boy like me, 
 An' so, er course, she doesn't know 
 
 What a boy 'ud like to be. 
 
 An' pa, he ain't no use a-tall 
 
 He dassn't say a word 
 ' Whatever mother says must go " 
 Is all I've ever heard. 
 
 It's dretful queer how he's forgot 
 'Bout things boys like to do! 
 
 But p'rhaps when I'm so awful old, 
 I'll have forgotten, too. 
 
 An* so, I think, I'd ruther die 
 
 A little boy like me, 
 Than live to be as horrid as 
 The grown folks have to be. 
 
 Elisabeth Thomson Ordway. 
 300
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 BUD'S VIEWS 
 
 Old folks think it's fun to be 
 Just a little boy like me 
 Think that all I got to do 
 Is to play the whole day through 
 And to stay out in the sun, 
 Havin' every kind of fun. 
 Poets write about the joys 
 That belong to little boys, 
 But no poet's written yet 
 'Bout the scoldings that they get. 
 
 Wonder what old folks would say 
 If, a dozen times a day, 
 They were scrubbed until it hurt 
 Coz their mothers hated dirt. 
 Wonder how they'd like to be 
 Treated just the same as me 
 An* as soon as they were fed, 
 Chased up-stairs an* put to bed, 
 Or when they've a stummick ache, 
 Castor oil be forced to take. 
 
 'Spose those long-haired poet chaps 
 Had to sit in women's laps, 
 An' be kissed an' hugged a lot, 
 If they wanted to or not; 
 'Spose while playin' one-o'-cat 
 It had come their turn to bat, 
 Bet they wouldn't wear a grin, 
 If their mothers called 'em in, 
 Chased 'em on an errand for 
 Something at the grocery store. 
 301
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Old folks think it's fun to be 
 Five years old an' young like me, 
 An' the poets sing the joys 
 Of the happy little boys, 
 But right now I'm telling you 
 Boys have lots of troubles, too 
 Lots of things to make 'em mad, 
 They're not always feeling glad. 
 When you're five years old, By Jing! 
 You get blamed for everything. 
 
 Edgar A. Guest. 
 
 Copyrighted, 1919, by Edgar A. Guest. 
 
 HEADACHE JES' 'FORE SCHOOL 
 
 I guess my health is gittin' poor, 
 
 Er somep'ner the kin* 
 For every mornin' jist as sure 
 
 (Especially if it's fine) 
 I git sich offul pains 
 
 'At ma says : " It's jes* cru'l 
 Ter make 'at boy study with 
 
 Such headaches jes' 'fore school." 
 
 Ma thinks my mind is breakin' down 
 
 From learnin' of so much. 
 She puts wet towels on my head, 
 
 An' chopped up ice, an' such, 
 302
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 An* tries ter git me off ter bed, 
 
 But pa says he's no fool, 
 He thinks birch oil's the only stuff 
 
 Fer headaches jes' 'fore school. 
 
 An' teacher, too, don't symp'thize 
 
 'Ith boys wot's feelin' bad, 
 Fer, soon's she sees me mopin' in, 
 
 She says : " Now ain't 'at sad 
 Ter make them suff'rin' children works I 
 
 Young man, set on 'at stool 
 An' do them sums." Huh ! she makes fun 
 
 Of headaches jes' 'fore school. 
 
 'Tis kind'r funny, though, how soon 
 
 I'm over bein' sick, 
 An' me an' Jim (Jim, he gits cramps), 
 
 We sneak off down t' the crick 
 An' go in swimmin'. Gee! We got 
 
 A bully divin' pool 
 An' spring board. Gosh ! you bet they cure 
 
 Them headaches jes' 'fore school. 
 
 An' fishin', too. We got a raft 
 
 An' dandy hooks an' lines, 
 Ketch bulkheads, lots an' sunfish. Say! 
 
 Down underneath them pines 
 They bite like thunder! Settin' there, 
 
 Feet swashin', nice an' cool. 
 Pains, nothin' ! Say, d' you ever git 
 
 Them headaches jes' 'fore school? 
 
 Maurice C. Johnson.
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 A BOY'S CONFESSION 
 
 Aunt Kate she said the other day, 
 " Jim's nothin' but a boy," she said. 
 That's jus' the way I heard her say 
 As if she wisht all boys was dead. 
 She ac' as if boys wasn't fit 
 To be alive a little bit. 
 
 Pa, all the time he says: " Here, James! 
 
 Don't let me speak to you again ! 
 
 Don't call your little sister names ! 
 
 Don't tease the cat! Don't scare the hen! 
 
 Now do be quiet if you can, 
 
 An' ac' a little like a man." 
 
 Seems like they ain't no room for me 
 To move or make a bit of noise. 
 I wish Aunt Kate, I just wisht she 
 Was more than forty 'leven boys, 
 All set up in a stiff back chair, 
 An' made to stay all quiet there. 
 
 I didn't go to sass Aunt Kate, 
 " Shut up," was all I ever said. 
 An' Pa, he turned an' made me skate 
 Out of the room up here to bed, 
 An' made me leave the table too, 
 Jus' when I wasn't half way through. 
 
 Ma she came up, an' she's been here. 
 I heard her creaking up the stairs. 
 She say to me : " I come, my dear, 
 To tuck you in an* hear your prayers." 
 An' then I choked an' boo ! hoo ! 
 An' cried an' cried, and Ma cried, too. 
 34
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 I'm sorry now I sassed Aunt Kate, 
 
 An' hurt her feelin's like I do. 
 
 'Cause Ma says she's been sick of late 
 
 With nervous prostration, too. 
 
 An' Pa was worried to-night 
 
 'Cause the store business don't go right. 
 
 An' Ma she'll tell me I shall pray 
 That I don't do them things again, 
 An' God fergive me, which I say 
 I ast fer Jesus sake amen. 
 An' I fergive Aunt Kate an* Pa; 
 An' every one and love my Ma ! 
 
 Milton O. Nelson. 
 
 MOTHERS 
 
 Mothers are the queerest things! 
 
 'Member when John went away, 
 All but mother cried and cried 
 
 When they said good-by that day. 
 She just talked, and seemed to be 
 
 Not the slightest bit upset 
 Was the only one who smiled ! 
 
 Others' eyes were streaming wet. 
 But when John come back again 
 
 On a furlough, safe and sound, 
 With a medal for his deeds 
 
 And without a single wound, 
 While the rest of us hurrahed, 
 
 Laughed and joked and danced about, 
 Mother kissed him, then she cried 
 
 Cried and cried like all git out ! 
 
 The Century. 
 3S
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 WHEN TEACHER GETS CROSS 
 
 " When the teacher gets cross and her brown 
 
 eyes get black 
 And her pencil comes down on the desk with 
 
 a whack, 
 
 We chilluns in class sits up straight in a line, 
 As if we had rulers instead of a spine. 
 It's scary to cough, and it's not safe to 
 
 grin- 
 When the teacher gets cross and the dimples 
 
 goes in. 
 
 " When the teacher gets cross, the tables all 
 
 mix, 
 And the ones and the sevens begins playing 
 
 tricks ; 
 
 The pluses and minus is just little smears 
 Where the cry babies cry all their slates up 
 
 with tears. 
 The figgers won't add and they act up like 
 
 sin 
 When the teacher gets cross and the dimples 
 
 goes in. 
 
 " When the teacher gets cross, the readers 
 
 gets bad, 
 
 The lines jiggle round till the chilluns is sad, 
 And Billyboy puffs and gets red in the face, 
 As if he and lessons were running a race, 
 Till she hollers out 'Next!' as sharp as a 
 
 pin 
 When the teacher gets cross and the dimples 
 
 goes in. 
 
 306
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 When the teacher gets good, her smile is so 
 
 bright 
 The tables gets straight and the readers gets 
 
 right, 
 
 The pluses and minus comes trooping along, 
 And figgers add up and stops being wrong, 
 And we chilluns would like (but we dassent) 
 
 to shout, 
 When the teacher gets good and the dimples 
 
 comes out." 
 
 When you first teach a child to understand 
 Work means the loving heart and helping hand; 
 When you first teach a youth to read and write 
 You give the key to a lifelong delight. 
 Who adds the charm of music to his days 
 Attunes his soul to melody and praise. 
 Who studies art enters the court serene, 
 The enchanted land where Nature reigns a 
 
 queen. 
 
 Who loves all beauty doth a poet grow, 
 And wins the highest joy that mortals know. 
 
 James B. Wiggin. 
 
 37
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 WHAT WOULD YOU DO? 
 
 If you were a little girl again, 
 
 Mother Mahone, Mahone, 
 What would you do the long, long day, 
 
 Playing alone, alone? 
 If I were a little girl again, 
 
 Nora, my own, my own, 
 With just one long, long sunny day 
 
 To play alone, alone, 
 If I were a little girl again, 
 
 And fairy folk were true, 
 If paper dolls had human hearts, 
 
 And all the world were new, 
 Ah, listen, listen, little one, 
 
 I'll whisper what I'd do : 
 
 "To the violet's lips I'd put my ear 
 And hush my heart that I might hear 
 
 The secret of its sweetness; 
 I'd search beneath the fungus shelves 
 For glimpses of goblins, gnomes and elves; 
 I'd run a race with the laughing brook, 
 Or chase it to some witch-kept nook, 
 
 Whose spell would stay its fleetness. 
 
 I'd hide in the haunt of the mocking bird 
 Till I learned its melody word for word; 
 Full length upon the moss I'd lie, 
 Content beneath the changing sky 
 In that one day's completeness. 
 308
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 " If I were a little girl again, 
 
 Even as you, as you, 
 If fairy folk were truly folk, 
 
 And all the world were new, 
 I'd just be happy, little one, 
 
 Till the long, long day was through.' 
 
 A LIFE-LESSON 
 
 There! little girl; don't cry! 
 
 They have broken your doll, I know; 
 And your tea-set blue, 
 And your play-house, too, 
 Are things of long ago ; 
 But childish troubles will soon pass by, 
 There ! little girl ; don't cry ! 
 
 There! little girl; don't cry! 
 
 They have broken your slate, I know; 
 And the glad, wild ways 
 Of your schoolgirl days 
 Are things of the long ago ; 
 But life and love will soon come by, 
 There ! little girl ; don't cry ! 
 
 There! little girl; don't cry! 
 
 They have broken your heart, I know; 
 And the rainbow gleams 
 Of your youthful dreams 
 Are things of the long ago ; 
 But Heaven holds all for which you sigh,- 
 There ! little girl ; don't cry ! 
 
 James Whit comb Riley. 
 39
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 WHEN WE LAY OUR DOLLS AWAY 
 
 What is it, dear heart ? " Too big for dolls ? " 
 
 Is that what the wise folks say? 
 You " must say good-by to your childhood 
 friends, 
 
 For you're twelve years old to-day?" 
 The dear little lady with flaxen hair 
 
 And the darling with black eyes bright, 
 And dearest of all the " raggedy doll " 
 
 Must be hidden away from sight? 
 
 Ah, dear little girl, I know, I know ; 
 
 For the very saddest day 
 Is the day that comes to us, one and all, 
 
 When we lay our dolls away; 
 The beautiful doll of Innocence, 
 
 And the sturdy doll called Truth, 
 And saddest of all the " raggedy doll " 
 
 The unquestioning faith of youth ! 
 
 Florence A. Jones. 
 
 MAIDENHOOD 
 
 Maiden ! with the meek, brown eyes, 
 In whose orbs a shadow lies 
 Like the dusk in evening skies ! 
 
 Thou whose locks outshine the sun, 
 Golden tresses, wreathed in one, 
 As the braided streamlets run! 
 310
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 Standing, with reluctant feet, 
 Where the brook and river meet, 
 Womanhood and childhood fleet! 
 
 Gazing, with a timid glance, 
 On the brooklet's swift advance, 
 On the river's broad expanse ! 
 
 Deep and still, that gliding stream 
 Beautiful to thee must seem, 
 As the river of a dream. 
 
 Then why pause with indecision, 
 When bright angels in thy vision 
 Beckon thee to fields Elysian? 
 
 Seest thou shadows sailing by, 
 As the dove, with startled eye, 
 Sees the falcon's shadow fly? 
 
 Hearest thou voices on the shore, 
 That our ears perceive no more, 
 Deafened by the cataract's roar? 
 
 O, thou child of many prayers ! 
 
 Life hath quicksands, Life hath snares ! 
 
 Care and age come unawares ! 
 
 Like the swell of some sweet tune, 
 Morning rises into noon, 
 May glides onward into June. 
 
 Childhood is the bough, where slumbered 
 Birds and blossoms many-numbered ; 
 Age, that bough with snows encumbered. 
 
 3"
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Gather, then, each flower that grows, 
 When the young heart overflows, 
 To embalm that tent of snows. 
 
 Bear a lily in thy hand; 
 
 Gates of brass cannot withstand 
 
 One touch of that magic wand. 
 
 Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, 
 In thy heart the dew of youth, 
 On thy lips the smile of truth. 
 
 O, that dew, like balm, shall steal 
 Into wounds that cannot heal, 
 Even as sleep our eyes doth seal; 
 
 And that smile, like sunshine, dart 
 Into many a sunless heart, 
 For a smile of God thou art. 
 
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 FROM THE BLUE BIRD 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 There are many more Happinesses on Earth 
 than people think; but the generality of 
 men do not discover them. . . . 
 
 TYI/TYL. 
 Here are some little ones : let us run and meet 
 
 them. . . . 
 
 312
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 It is unnecessary: those which interest us will 
 pass this way. We have no time to make 
 the acquaintance of all the rest. . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 How pretty, how very pretty they are ! . . . 
 Where do they come from, who are 
 they? . . . 
 
 LIGHT. 
 They are the Children's Happinesses. . * 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 Can one speak to them? 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 It would be no use. They sing, they dance, 
 they laugh, but they do not talk yet. . . . 
 
 TYLTYL (skipping about). 
 How do you do? How do you do? . . . 
 Oh, look at that fat one laughing! . . . 
 What pretty cheeks they have, what 
 pretty frocks they have! . . . Are 
 they all rich here? . . . 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 Why, no, here, as everywhere, there are many 
 more poor than rich. r T" . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 Where are the poor ones? . .- ; 
 
 3*3
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 You can't distinguish them. ... A Child's 
 Happiness is always arrayed in all that is 
 most beautiful in Heaven and upon 
 Earth. 
 ******* 
 
 (Another troop of HAPPINESSES, a little taller 
 than the last, rush into the hall, singing 
 at the top of their voice. ) 
 
 ******* 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 How do you do, Tyltyl? . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 Another one who knows me! . . . (To 
 LIGHT.) I am getting known wherever 
 I go! . . . (To THE HAPPINESS.) 
 Who are you? . . . 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 
 Don't you recognize me? . . . I'll wager 
 that you don't recognize any one here! 
 
 TYLTYL (a little embarrassed) . 
 Why, no. ... I don't know. ... I 
 don't remember seeing any of you. . . 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 
 There, do you hear? ... I was sure of 
 it! ... He has never seen us ! . . .
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 > 
 
 (All the other HAPPINESSES burst out 
 laughing.) Why, my dear Tyltyl, we 
 are the only things you do know! . . . 
 We are always around you ! . . . We 
 eat, drink, wake up, breathe and live with 
 you! . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 Oh, yes, just so, I know, I remember. . . . 
 But I should like to know what your 
 names are. . . . 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 
 I can see that you know nothing. ... I 
 am the chief of the Happinesses of your 
 home; and all these are the other Happi- 
 nesses that live there. . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 Then there are Happinesses in my home? . . . 
 (All the HAPPINESSES burst out laughing.) 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 
 You heard him! . . . Are there Happi- 
 nesses in his home! . . . Why, you 
 little wretch, it is crammed with Happi- 
 nesses in every nook and cranny ! . . . 
 We laugh, we sing, we create enough 
 joy to knock down the walls and lift the 
 roof; but, do what we may, you see 
 nothing and you hear nothing. . . . 
 315
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 I hope that in future, you will be a little 
 more sensible. . . . Meantime, you 
 shall shake hands with the more note- 
 worthy of us. ... Then, when you 
 reach home again, you will recognize them 
 more easily and, at the end of a fine day, 
 you will know how to encourage them with 
 a smile, to thank them with a pleasant 
 word, for they really do all they can to 
 make your life easy and delightful. . . . 
 Let me introduce myself first : the Happi- 
 ness of Being Well, at your service. . . . 
 I am not the prettiest, but I am the most 
 important. Will you know me again? . . . 
 This is the Happiness of Pure Air, who is 
 almost transparent. . . . Here is the 
 Happiness of Loving one's Parents, who 
 is clad in grey and always a little sad, be- 
 cause no one ever looks at him. . . . 
 Here are the Happiness of the Blue Sky, 
 who, of course, is dressed in blue, and the 
 Happiness .of the Forest, who, also of 
 course, is clad in green: you will see him 
 every time ypu go to the window. . . . 
 Here, again, is the good Happiness of 
 Sunny Hours, who is diamond-coloured, 
 and this is the Happiness of Spring, who 
 is bright emerald. . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 And are you as fine as that every day?
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 THE HAPPINESS OF BEING WELL. 
 Why* yes, it is Sunday every day, in every 
 house, when people open their eyes. . . . 
 And then, when evening comes, here is 
 the Happiness of the Sunsets, who is 
 grander than all the kings in the world 
 and who is followed by the Happiness of 
 Seeing the Stars Rise, who is gilded like 
 a god of old. . . . Then, when the 
 weather breaks, here are the Happiness of 
 the Rain, who is covered with pearls, and 
 the Happiness of the Winter Fire, who 
 opens his beautiful purple mantle to 
 frozen hands. . . . And I have not 
 mentioned the best among us, because he 
 is nearly a brother of the great limpid Joys 
 whom you will see presently: his name is 
 the Happiness of Innocent Thoughts, and 
 he is the brightest of us all. . . . And 
 then here are . . . But really there are 
 too many of them! . . . We should 
 never have done; and I must first send 
 word to the Great Joys, who are right at 
 the back, near the gates of Heaven, and 
 who have not yet heard of your arrival. 
 . . . I will send the Happiness of 
 Running Barefoot in the Dew, who is the 
 nimblest of us. . . . (To the HAP- 
 PINESS OF RUNNING BAREFOOT IN THE 
 DEW, who comes forward capering.) Off 
 you go! ...
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 
 (Tall and beautiful angelic figures, clad in 
 shimmering dresses, come slowly for- 
 ward.) 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 How beautiful they are! . . . Why are 
 they not laughing? . . . Are they 
 not happy? . . . 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 It is not when one laughs that one is really 
 happy. . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 Who are they? . . . 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 They are the Great Joys. . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 Do you know their names? . 5 . 
 
 THE HAPPIXESS. 
 Of course; we often play with them. . . . 
 
 ******* 
 
 Here, among the greatest Joys, is the Joy 
 of Seeing what is Beautiful, who daily 
 adds a few rays to the light that reigns 
 amongst us. ... 
 318
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 TYLTYI* 
 
 And there, far away, far away, in the golden 
 clouds, the one whom I can hardly see 
 when I stand as high as I can on tip-toe? 
 
 * 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 
 That is the Great Joy of Loving. . . . 
 But, do what you will, you are ever so 
 much too small to see her altogether. . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 And over there, right at the back, those who 
 are veiled and who do not come near? . . . 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 
 Those are the Joys whom men do not yet 
 know. . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 What do the others want with us? 5 s 
 Why are they standing aside? . . . 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 
 It is before a new Joy who is arriving, perhaps 
 the purest that we have here. . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 Who is it? 
 
 THE HAPPINESS. 
 
 Don't you recognize her yet? . . . But 
 take a better look at her, open your two
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 eyes down to the very heart of your 
 soul! . . . She has seen you, she has 
 seen you! . . . She runs up to you, 
 holding out her arms! ... It is 
 your mother's Joy, it is the peerless Joy 
 of Maternal Love! . . . 
 ******* 
 
 THE JOY OF MATERNAL LOVE. 
 Tyltyl! And Mytyl! . . . What, do I 
 find you here ! . . . I never expected 
 it! . . . I was very lonely at home; 
 and here are you two climbing to that 
 Heaven where the souls of all mothers 
 beam with joy! . . . But first kisses, 
 heaps and heaps of kisses ! . . . Into 
 my arms, the two of you ; there is nothing 
 on earth that gives greater happiness ! . . . 
 Tyltyl, aren't you laughing? . . . Nor 
 you either, Mytyl? . . . Don't you 
 know your mother's love when you see 
 it? . . . Why, look at me: are these 
 not my eyes, my lips, my arms? . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 Yes, yes, I recognize them, but I did not 
 know. . . . You are like Mummy, 
 but you are much prettier. . . . 
 
 MATERNAL LOVE. 
 
 Why, of course, I have stopped growing 
 old. . . . And every day brings me 
 320
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 fresh strength and youth and happi- 
 ness. . . . Each of your smiles makes 
 me younger by a year. . . . At home, 
 that does not show; but here everything 
 is seen and it is the truth. . . . 
 
 TYLTYL (wonder-struck, gazing at her 
 
 and kissing her by turns.) 
 And that beautiful dress of yours: what is it 
 made of? . . . Is it silk, silver or 
 pearls? . . . 
 
 MATERNAL LOVE. 
 
 No, it is made of kisses and caresses and lov- 
 ing looks. . . . Each kiss you give 
 me adds a ray of moon-light or sunshine 
 to it. ... 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 How funny, I should never have thought that 
 you were so rich! . . . Where used 
 you to hide it? . . . Was it in the 
 cupboard of which Daddy has the 
 key? . . . 
 
 MATERNAL LOVE. 
 
 No, no, I always wear it, but people do not 
 see it, because people see nothing when 
 their eyes are closed. . . . All mothers 
 are rich when they love their chil- 
 dren. . . . There are no poor moth- 
 321
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 ers, no ugly ones, no old ones. Their love 
 is always the most beautiful of the Joys. 
 . . . And, when they seem most sad, 
 it needs but a kiss which they receive or 
 give to turn all their tears into stars in 
 the depths of their eyes. . . . 
 
 TYLTYL (looking at her with 
 astonishment ) . 
 
 Why, yes, it's true, your eyes are filled with 
 stars. . . . And they are really your 
 eyes, only they are much more beauti- 
 ful. . . . And this is your hand too, 
 with the little ring on it. ... It even 
 has the burn which you gave it one even- 
 ing when lighting the lamp. . . . But 
 it is much whiter; and how delicate the 
 skin is! . . . There seems to be light 
 flowing through it. ... Doesn't it 
 do any work like the one at home? . . . 
 
 ^ MATERNAL LOVE. 
 
 Why, yes, it is the very same: did you never 
 see that it becomes quite white and fills 
 with light the moment it fondles you? . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 It's wonderful, Mummy: you have the same 
 voice also; but you speak much better 
 than you do at home. . . . 
 322
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 MATERNAL LOVE. 
 
 At home, one has too much to do and there is 
 no time. . . . But what one does not 
 say one hears all the same. . . * . Now 
 that you have seen me, will you know me 
 again, in my torn dress, when you go back 
 to the cottage to-morrow? . . . 
 
 TYLTYL. 
 
 I don't want to go back. . . . As you are 
 here, I want to stay also, as long as you 
 remain. . . . 
 
 MATERNAL LOVE. 
 
 But it's just the same thing: I am down be- 
 low, we are all down below. . . . You 
 have come up here only to realize and to 
 learn, once and for all, how to see me 
 when you see me down below. . . . 
 Do you understand, Tyltyl dear? . . . 
 You believe yourself in Heaven; but 
 Heaven is wherever you and I kiss each 
 other. . . . There are not two 
 mothers; and you have no other. . . . 
 Every child has only one; and it is always 
 the same one and always the most beauti- 
 ful ; but you have to know her and to know 
 how to look. 
 
 Maurice Maeterlinck. 
 3*3
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 THE MOTHER'S PRAYER 
 
 Starting forth on life's rough way, 
 
 Father, guide them ; 
 Oh ! we know not what of harm 
 
 May betide them ! 
 'Neath the shadow of Thy wing, 
 
 Father, hide them ! 
 Waking, sleeping, Lord, we pray, 
 
 Go beside them. 
 
 When in prayer they cry to Thee, 
 
 Do Thou hear them ; 
 From the stains of sin and shame 
 
 Do Thou clear them; 
 'Mid the quicksands and the rocks 
 
 Do Thou steer them; 
 In temptation, trial, grief, 
 
 Be Thou near them. 
 
 Unto Thee we give them up, 
 
 Lord receive them ; 
 In the world we know must be 
 
 Much to grieve them, 
 Many striving oft and strong 
 
 To deceive them; 
 Trustful in Thy hands of love 
 
 We must leave them. 
 
 William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 324
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 AT LIFE'S THRESHOLD 
 
 Little life from out the life divine, 
 Little heart so near and dear to mine, 
 Little bark new launched upon life's sea 
 In the sunny days of infancy, 
 Little comer on our shore of Time, 
 Little ray from out God's great sublime, 
 Little traveller from eternity, 
 May my love protect and shelter thee. 
 
 In the passage through our human state 
 
 Many dark and dreary days await; 
 
 Many are the burdens must be borne, 
 
 Many are the times our hearts are torn. 
 
 These are in thy pathway, little one, 
 
 Ere thy journey through our world be done. 
 
 From the stings of all adversity 
 
 May my love protect and shelter thee. 
 
 For, enwrapped invisibly thou art 
 In a tendril reaching from my heart; 
 And around thy tiny form entwine 
 Love-chords from thy mother's heart and 
 
 mine. 
 
 From some land of morning hast thou come, 
 Like a gleam of sunshine in our home; 
 And, my child, whate'er thy lot may be, 
 May our love protect and shelter thee. 
 
 /. A. Edgerton. 
 
 3*5
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 THE CHILDREN 
 
 Oh, my heart grows weak as a woman's, 
 
 And the fountains of feeling will flow, 
 When I think of the paths steep and stony 
 
 Where the feet of the dear ones must go. 
 Of the mountains of sin hanging o'er them, 
 
 Of the tempest of Fate blowing wild; 
 Oh, there is nothing on earth so holy 
 
 As the innocent heart of a child ! 
 
 They are idols of hearts and of households, 
 
 They are angels of God in disguise; 
 His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses, 
 
 His glory still gleams in their eyes; 
 Oh, those truants from home and from heaven, 
 
 They have made me more manly and mild! 
 And I know how Jesus could liken 
 
 The kingdom of God to a child. 
 
 I ask not for the dear ones, 
 
 All radiant, as others have done. 
 But that life may have just enough shadow 
 
 To temper the glare of the sun ; 
 I would pray God to guard them from evil 
 
 But my prayer would bound back to myself; 
 Ah ! a seraph may pray for a sinner, 
 
 But a sinner must pray for himself. 
 
 The twig is so easily bended, 
 
 I have banished the rule and the rod, 
 I have taught them the goodness of knowl- 
 edge, 
 
 They have taught me the goodness of God ; 
 326
 
 THE CHILDREN AND THE CHEERFUL LIFE 
 
 My heart is a dungeon of darkness, 
 
 Where I shut them from breaking a rule; 
 
 My frown is sufficient correction; 
 My love is the law of the school. 
 
 I shall leave the old house in the Autumn, 
 
 To traverse the threshold no more; 
 Ah ! how I shall sigh for the dear ones 
 
 That meet me each morning at the door! 
 I shall miss the " good-nights " and the kisses 
 
 And the gush of their innocent glee, 
 The group on the green, and the flowers 
 
 That are brought every morning to me. 
 
 I shall miss them at morning and at evening, 
 
 Their song in the school and the street; 
 I shall miss the low hum of their voices, 
 
 And the tramp of their delicate feet. 
 When the lessons and tasks are all ended, 
 
 And death says, " The school is dismissed ! " 
 May the little ones gather around me, 
 
 To bid me good-night and be kissed. 
 
 Charles Dickens. 
 
 3*7
 
 PART VI 
 
 "IT IS BETTER TO TRAVEL HOPE- 
 FULLY THAN TO ARRIVE" 
 
 "You can measure a man's greatness by the length 
 of his vision into the future."
 
 "IT IS BETTER TO TRAVEL HOPE- 
 FULLY THAN TO ARRIVE" 
 
 Hope, like the gleaming taper's light, 
 
 Adorns and cheers the way; 
 And still, as darker grows the night, 
 
 Emits a brighter ray. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 " Every heart that has beat strong and 
 cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it 
 in the world, and bettered the tradition of man- 
 kind." 
 
 Hope springs eternal in the human breast: 
 Man never is, but always to be blest. 
 The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, 
 Rests and expatiates in a life to come. 
 Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind 
 Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind. 
 
 Alexander Pope. 
 33 1
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Be like the bird, that halting in her flight 
 
 Awhile on boughs too slight, 
 Feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, 
 
 Knowing that she hath wings. 
 
 Victor Hugo. 
 
 " This pretty bird, oh, how she flies and sings I 
 How could she do so if she had not wings? 
 Her wings bespeak my faith, her songs my 
 
 peace; 
 When I believe and sing, my doubtings 
 
 cease." 
 
 The heart that trusts, forever sings, 
 And feels as light as it had wings, 
 A well of peace within it springs, 
 Come good or ill." 
 
 Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. 
 I drink at it ; but while I drink I see the sandy 
 bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin 
 current slides away, but eternity remains. I 
 would drink deeper ; fish in the sky, whose bot- 
 tom is pebbly with stars. 
 
 Henry D. Thoreau. 
 332
 
 "IT IS BETTER TO TRAVEL HOPEFULLY 
 THAN TO ARRIVE" 
 
 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 
 
 'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 
 
 And intimates eternity to man. 
 
 The soul, secured in her existence, smiles 
 At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. 
 The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 
 Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, 
 But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, 
 Unhurt amidst the war of elements, 
 The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds. 
 
 Joseph Addison. 
 
 Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: 
 
 The soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 
 
 Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
 
 And cometh from afar: 
 Not in entire forgetfulness, 
 
 And not in utter nakedness, 
 But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
 From God, who is our home. 
 
 William W.ordsworth. 
 
 What is excellent, 
 As God lives, is permanent; 
 Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain; 
 Heart's love will meet thee again. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 333
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 To enter the region in which it seems better 
 to wonder than to know, to aspire rather than 
 to define, to hope rather than to be satisfied. 
 A spirit which walks expectantly along this 
 path grows to leam that the secret of such 
 happiness as we can attain lies in simplicity 
 and courage, in sincerity and loving-kindness; 
 it grows more and more averse to material 
 ambitions and mean aims ; and more and more 
 desires silence and recollection and contempla- 
 tion. In this mood, the words of the wise fall 
 like the tolling of sweet, grave bells upon the 
 soul, the dreams of poets come like music heard 
 at evening from the depth of some enchanted 
 forest, wafted over a wide water; we know not 
 what instrument it is whence the music wells, 
 by what fingers swept, by what lips blown ; but 
 we know that there is some presence there that 
 is sorrowful or glad, who has power to trans- 
 late his dream into concord of sweet sounds. 
 Such a mood need not withdraw us from life, 
 from toil, from kindly relationships, from deep 
 affections; but it will rather send us back to 
 life with a renewed and joyful zest, with a de- 
 sire to discern the true quality of beautiful 
 things, of fair thoughts, of courageous hopes, 
 
 334
 
 "IT IS BETTER TO TRAVEL HOPEFULLY 
 THAN TO ARRIVE" 
 
 of wise designs. It will make us tolerant and 
 forgiving, patient with stubbornness and 
 prejudice, simple in conduct, sincere in word, 
 gentle in deed; with pity for weakness, with 
 affection for the lonely and the desolate, with 
 admiration for all that is noble and serene and 
 strong. 
 
 Arthur C. Benson. 
 From "From a College Window." 
 
 Such fun to keep on longing, 
 Such joy to dream our dream 
 With gladness and with laughter 
 As the days around us gleam. 
 A fine old world for gladness 
 That comes as sure as fate, 
 As springtime with the lilies 
 When lilac decks the gate. 
 Such cheer to put by sighing, 
 And with our heart's best love 
 Keep struggling and keep trying, 
 With trust in things above. 
 
 Bentztown Bard. 
 
 Copyrighted by Southern Press Syndicate. 
 
 335
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how; 
 Everything is happy now, 
 
 Everything is upward striving; 
 "Tis as easy now for the heart to be true 
 As for grass to be green or skies to be blue 
 
 'Tis the natural way of living. 
 Who knows whither the clouds have fled? 
 
 In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; 
 And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, 
 The heart forgets its sorrow and ache. 
 
 James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song! 
 
 And let the young Lambs bound 
 
 As to the tabor's sound! 
 We in thought will join your throng, 
 
 Ye that pipe and ye that play, 
 
 Ye that through your hearts to-day 
 
 Feel the gladness of May ! 
 
 And oh, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and 
 
 Groves, 
 
 Think not of any severing of our loves ! 
 Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might; 
 I love the brooks which down their channels 
 
 fret, 
 Even more than when I tripped as lightly as 
 
 they; 
 
 The innocent brightness of a new-born Day 
 Is lovely yet : 
 
 33 6
 
 "IT IS BETTER TO TRAVEL HOPEFULLY 
 THAN TO ARRIVE" 
 
 Thanks to the human heart by which we 
 
 live, 
 
 Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears, 
 To me the meanest flower that blows can 
 
 give 
 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 SUNLIGHT OF THE HEART 
 
 It's the sunlight of the heart that makes sweet 
 
 the chosen way; 
 It's the sunlight of the heart, not the sunlight of 
 
 the day. 
 It's the sunlight of the heart 
 
 Keeps us toiling, cold or heat, 
 With the blossoms in our dreams 
 And the robins singing sweet. 
 
 It's the sunshine of the heart keeps the world 
 
 from turning gray ; 
 It's the sunshine of the heart keeps the spirits 
 
 fresh with play. 
 It's the sunshine of the heart, 
 
 Stored with beauty of the years, 
 Keeps the shadows from the soul, 
 Heals the heartache and the tears. 
 337
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 It's the sunlight of the heart makes us young 
 
 along the line 
 With the touch of morning song in a world love 
 
 makes divine. 
 It's the sunlight of the heart 
 
 Helps us laugh when troubles loom, 
 And it leads us with its laughter 
 On the way life walks to bloom. 
 
 It's the sunshine of the heart makes the sunshine 
 
 of the day 
 Just to help us chase the care and the dark and 
 
 doubt away. 
 It's the sunshine of the heart 
 
 That shall lead us, worn and pale, 
 To the beauty of the lilies 
 In that last eternal vale. 
 
 Bentztown Bard. 
 
 Copyrighted by Southern Press Syndicate. 
 
 SING STRONGER, HEART 
 
 Sing blither, heart, along the shortening way; 
 
 Since thou must sing, 
 Attune they lute strings to some lighter lay, 
 
 Some air of spring; 
 
 Shut out the minor of the autumn rain, 
 The crooning of the east wind, from thy strain, 
 
 Sing blither, heart ! 
 338
 
 "IT IS BETTER TO TRAVEL HOPEFULLY 
 THAN TO ARRIVE" 
 
 Sing gladder, heart ! the world is full of woe, 
 
 And thou canst sing; 
 For such a gracious gift, what dost thou woe, 
 
 Remembering, 
 
 Weave gladness in thy song, and it may bring 
 New strength to some bruised heart or wounded 
 wing. 
 
 Sing gladder, heart! 
 
 Sing stronger, heart, and clearer be thy tones 
 
 Of hope and trust, 
 Yet higher keyed thy psalm, thy altar stones 
 
 Raised past the dust! 
 
 The shortened hand may fall, but ne'er forget 
 The Lord is in His holy temple, yet, 
 . Sing stronger, heart! 
 
 Christian Work. 
 
 WITH THE LARK 
 
 Night is for sorrow and dawn is for joy, 
 Chasing the troubles that fret and annoy; 
 Darkness for sighing and daylight for song, 
 Cheery and chaste the strain, heartfelt and 
 
 strong. 
 All the night through, though I moan in the 
 
 dark, 
 
 I wake in the morning to sing with the lark. 
 339
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Deep in the midnight, the rain whips the 
 
 leaves, 
 
 Softly and sadly the wood-spirit grieves. 
 But when the first hue of dawn tints the sky, 
 I shall shake out my wings like the birds and 
 
 be dry; 
 And though, like the raindrops, I grieved 
 
 through the dark, 
 I shall wake in the morning to sing with the 
 
 lark. 
 
 Paul Laurence Dunbar. 
 
 IN TUNE 
 
 Keeping in tune as we pass our way, 
 Keeping in tune with the sweet of the day, 
 The surge of the struggle, the gift of the fight, 
 Keeping in tune to the bugles of light, 
 The measures of beauty that over us ring, 
 Keeping in tune to the truth as we swing 
 On to our labor and on to our rest 
 With ever a tune of life's love in our breast. 
 
 Keeping in tune to the beauty of earth, 
 Keeping in tune to its sunshine and mirth; 
 Keeping in tune to its birds and its flowers, 
 Its moonlight and starlight, its vines and its 
 
 bowers : 
 
 Keeping in tune to the music that pours 
 Around the sweet world of the green out o* 
 
 doors, 
 
 340
 
 "IT IS BETTER TO TRAVEL HOPEFULLY 
 THAN TO ARRIVE" 
 
 To the lilt and the laughter, the brightness 
 
 and glee, 
 That glow when love lifts us and sets our 
 
 souls free. 
 
 Bentztown Bard. 
 
 Copyrighted by Southern Press Syndicate. 
 
 MY DESIRE 
 
 This for to-day is my desire 
 To keep myself in wise control, 
 Only toward that which makes for good 
 To bend the forces of my soul. 
 
 To feel the Spirit in the wind, 
 The strength that cometh from the hills, 
 The sweet and tender messages 
 With which the air about me thrills. 
 
 Nor cry for past, nor forward stretch, 
 Nor yield my petty woes a place, 
 But take whate'er each hour unfolds 
 With thankful and obedient grace. 
 
 For this one day to me is given, 
 I take with joy the gift divine, 
 Each moment hold in sacred fee 
 That I may make the vision mine. 
 
 Lucy L. Montgomery.
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Therefore to whom turn I but to Thee, the in- 
 effable Name? 
 Builder and Maker, Thou, of houses not made 
 
 with hands ! 
 What, have fear of change from Thee who art 
 
 ever the same? 
 Doubt that Thy power can fill the heart that 
 
 Thy power expands? 
 There shall never be one lost good ! What was, 
 
 shall live as before ; 
 The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying 
 
 sound ; 
 What was good, shall be good, with, for evil, so 
 
 much good more; 
 
 On earth the broken arcs ; in heaven, a perfect 
 round. 
 
 All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good, 
 
 shall exist; 
 Not its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor 
 
 good, nor power 
 Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives 
 
 for the melodist, 
 When eternity affirms the conception of an 
 
 hour. 
 The high that proved too high, the heroic for 
 
 earth too hard, 
 The passion that left the ground to lose itself 
 
 in the sky, 
 Are music sent up to God by the lover and the 
 
 bard ; 
 
 Enough that he heard it once; we shall hear it 
 by-and-by. 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 342
 
 "IT IS BETTER TO TRAVEL HOPEFULLY 
 THAN TO ARRIVE" 
 
 I know not where His islands lift 
 Their fronded palms in air; 
 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 Beyond His love and care. 
 
 Oh, brothers! if my faith is vain, 
 
 If hopes like these betray, 
 Pray for me that my feet may gain 
 
 The sure and safer way. 
 
 And Thou, O Lord ! by whom are seen 
 
 Thy creatures as they be, 
 Forgive me if too close I lean 
 
 My human heart on Thee. 
 
 John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
 Love that wilt not let me go, 
 I rest my weary soul in Thee; 
 
 1 give Thee back the life I owe, 
 That in Thine ocean depths its flow 
 
 May richer, fuller be. 
 
 O Light that followest all my way, 
 
 I yield my flickering torch to Thee; 
 My heart restores its borrowed ray, 
 That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day 
 May brighter, fairer be. 
 
 343
 
 THE GOOD CHEER BOOK 
 
 Joy that seekest me through pain, 
 I cannot close my heart to Thee; 
 
 1 trace the rainbow through the rain, 
 And feel the promise is not vain 
 
 That morn shall tearless be. 
 
 George Matheson. 
 
 Wilt thou not ope thy heart to know 
 What rainbows teach, and sunsets show? 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 344
 
 "AT EVENING-TIME IT SHALL BE LIGHT."
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS 
 
 Page 
 
 Addison, Joseph 333 
 
 Akers, Elizabeth 206-217 
 
 Arnold. Matthew 38 
 
 Babcock, Maltbie Davenport 87-100 
 
 Bailey, Philip James 81 
 
 Bangs, John Kendrick 36 
 
 Bard, Bentztown 33-134-158-210-335-337-340 
 
 Bashford, H. H 148 
 
 Bennett, Arnold 74 
 
 Benson, Arthur C 185-186-190-334 
 
 Bolton, Sarah Knowles 84 
 
 Bonar, Horatio 216 
 
 Briscoe, Margaret Sutton 279 
 
 Brooke, Stopford A. 184 
 
 Brown, Susie Dawson 295 
 
 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett 55-99-118 
 
 Browning, Robert 88-60-342 
 
 Brunton, William 194 
 
 Bryant, William Cullen 43-56-324 
 
 Buckham, James 89 
 
 Budd, Myra Hummel 276 
 
 "Bulletin, L. A. W." 131 
 
 Burns, Robert 65 
 
 Butts, Mary F. 226-296 
 
 Byron, Lord 53 
 
 Call, Annie Payson 121 
 
 Campbell, Bessie Warren 280 
 
 Canning, Josephine 35 
 
 Gary, Alice , . . 175 
 
 Century, The 805 
 
 Channiner, Wm. Henry 86 
 
 Charles, Elizabeth 99 
 
 Cincinnati Enquirer 286 
 
 Cincinnati Times-Star 26 
 
 Commonwealth, Christian 
 
 Companion, Woman's Home 277 
 
 Cook, Edmnnd Vance 92-129 
 
 Cook, Rose Terry 263 
 
 347
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS 
 
 Page 
 
 Cornell, Annie S. 285 
 
 Cowper 187 
 
 Crandall, O. IL . . . 29 
 
 Crane, Dr. Frank . 66-136 
 
 Crannell, Elizabeth 71 
 
 Crosby, Ernest 190 
 
 Daly, T. A. 176 
 
 Dickens, Charles 208-326 
 
 Dickinson, Martha Gilbert 47 
 
 Dolliver, Clara G 289 
 
 Doppman, Hannah Leary 249 
 
 Dresser, Horatio W 116 
 
 Dubois, Julian A. 209 
 
 Dunbar, Paul Laurence 228-230-278-339 
 
 Edgerton, J. A. 325 
 
 Eliot, George 264 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo . 37-50-57-81-122-143-191-225-333-344 
 
 Field, Eugene 193-200-274-284-288 
 
 Foss, Sam Walter 5-90-125-126-261 
 
 Francis, Elizabeth H 157 
 
 Gem, The 297 
 
 Gilbert, W. S 129 
 
 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins 60-120 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver 331 
 
 Green, Roy Farrell 86 
 
 Griggs, Edward Howard 83-105 
 
 Guest, Edgar A. 42-130-283-290-301 
 
 Hale, Robert Beverly 215 
 
 Havergal, Frances Ridley 70 
 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel 178 
 
 Hayes, Florence A 232 
 
 Heath, Gertrude E 274 
 
 Hebe 295 
 
 Herald, Los Angeles 197 
 
 Herbert, Blanche B. 192-219 
 
 Herbert, George 99 
 
 Hlgginson. Ella 48 
 
 Hodges, Leigh Mitchell 45-253 
 
 Hosmer, Frederick L 104-106 
 
 Hubbard, Elbert 91 
 
 Hugo, Victor 332 
 
 Hutt, Frank Walcott 181 
 
 Ingelow, Jean 31-100-194-263 
 
 Isaacson, Charles D 188 
 
 348
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS 
 
 Jackson, Arthur Austin ........... 271 
 
 Jackson, Helen Hunt ....... *.... 140 
 
 James, William .............. 117 
 
 Johnson, Finley .............. 213 
 
 Johnson, Maurice C. ....... ...... 302 
 
 Jones, Florence A. ............. 310 
 
 Keats, John ...... , ......... 40 
 
 Keller, Helen ........ ..... 68-139-179 
 
 Kipling, Rudyard ......,, ...... 93 
 
 Kiser, S. E .............. 21-182-202 
 
 Kllngle, George .............. 239 
 
 Lakey, Charles D. . . . , ......... 35 
 
 Larcom, Lucy ........... 183-184-191-265 
 
 Le Gallienne, Richard ........... . 281 
 
 Leonard, Priscilla ............. 81-214 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham ............. 97-237 
 
 Longfellow, Henry W ...... 51-150-269-271-272-310 
 
 Lowell, James Russell . . ........ 46-101-336 
 
 Macleod, Norman ..... . ........ 238 
 
 Maeterlinck, Maurice .......... 77-180-312 
 
 Malloch, Douglas .............. 265 
 
 Markham, Edwin .............. 88 
 
 Matheson, George .............. 343 
 
 Matson, Mabel Cornelia . . ......... 281 
 
 May, Julia Harris ............. 162-251 
 
 McDonald, George ............. 275 
 
 Miller, Christine .............. 113 
 
 Milton, John ............... 148 
 
 Mitchell, Donald G ......... ..... 229 
 
 M'Kinsey, Folger .. i ..... ...... 25 
 
 Montgomery, Lucy L ............. 841 
 
 Monthly, Domestic ..... *** 199 
 
 Muse, Will D ....... ......... 245 
 
 Nelson, Milton O ....... ........ 304 
 
 Ordway, Elizabeth Thomson .......... 299 
 
 Oxenham, Jqhn ..... ......... 77 
 
 Park, John Edgar ..... ..... 19-156-180 
 
 Payne, John Howard ..... ....... 207 
 
 Perry, Carlotta ...... . ....... 147 
 
 Pope, Alexander ..... . r- *-"" .... 331 
 
 Post, Houston ............... 141 
 
 Procter, Bryan W. ..... ....... 29-53-196 
 
 Record, Medical Missionary ..... ..... 252 
 
 Rexford, Eben E ............... 242 
 
 349
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS 
 
 Page 
 
 Riley, James Whitcomb 217-225-229-233-309 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore , 102 
 
 Buskin, John .*;, .4. 34 
 
 Saleeby, a W., M. D 120-138 
 
 Sangster, Margaret , , . 149 
 
 Saturday, Every Other 212 
 
 Scull, Annie L 118 
 
 Service, Robert W. 58-125-126-128 
 
 Shakespeare , 30 
 
 Sill, Edward Rowland 24-67 
 
 Smith, Rachel G 225 
 
 Smith, Mrs. J. E 273 
 
 Smyth, Marion M 256 
 
 Somerset, Joan , 159 
 
 Spofford, Harriet Prescott 275 
 
 Stevenson, Charles W 85 
 
 Stevenson, Robert Louis 1-220 
 
 Sylvester, Elisabeth 195 
 
 Syme, Jane Grey 84 
 
 Symonds, John A 107 
 
 Taylor, Jane 237 
 
 Tennyson, Alfred 151 
 
 Thaxter, Cella . 132 
 
 Thoreau, Henry D. . . . i 57-227-332 
 
 Townsend, Mary Ashley 28 
 
 Transcript, Boston 55 
 
 Trine, Ralph Waldo 117-119 
 
 Twain, Mark 169 
 
 Wordsworth, William 21-39-41-48-52-72-101-189-233-333-336 
 
 Wagner, Charles 20-76-135-139-163 
 
 Waterman, Nixon 147 
 
 Watson, William 27 
 
 Weekly, British 69 
 
 West, James H 83 
 
 White, Bouck 95 
 
 Whittier. John Greenleaf 54-100-343 
 
 Whitney, Gertrude Capen . 250 
 
 Wiggtn, James B 307 
 
 Wilcox, Ella Wheeler 115-157-239-243-258 
 
 Wilder, Marshall P 155 
 
 Wood, Henry 115 
 
 Woodruff, Nannie H 73 
 
 Work, Christian . . . 838 
 
 Young, Ella Flagg T9 
 
 350
 
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