Instead of returning the frown, the child smiled and stepped a little closer. "I was just thinking how pretty your face would be if it smiled instead of frowned," she answered.
The woman's face relaxed. The bitter look in the eyes vanished and was replaced by a bright new light. The scowl became a grateful smile, and with an impulsive sob of pure joy, she knelt down and hugged the little girl who had been the first in a long time to speak gently to her, the first in a long time to return her frowns with sincere smiles of friendliness. And when she finally left the little child, and returned to the exacting conventionalities of the town, she was a nobler, better and finer woman.
The simple heart of a child who knew no other creed or law than the sincere love of all mankind triumphed over the bitterness of a woman who had known years of education and worldliness.
Culture is of the heart and spirit rather than of the outward appearance. But it is by what we do and say that we prove that it truly exists within us.
CHAPTER II
ETIQUETTE'S REWARD
THE ORIGIN OF MANNERS
Why do we observe certain set rules of convention? Why do we greet people in a certain ordained way—by nodding or by lifting the hat? Why do we make introductions and send invitations and cultivate our manners and speech? To find the answer we must trace civilization back to its very source.
One of the first necessities of the savage was to devise some means of showing savages of other tribes that he did not mean to fight—that he wanted to live with them peaceably. At first it was difficult to do this; primeval man was always suspicious, always watchful. He had to be, for his life depended upon it. But slowly certain peaceful observances and signs were established, and the savages began to understand them as greetings of peace and good-will. The salutation and greeting of to-day is a direct result of this early necessity.