“Lord Chesterfield told his son he hoped he’d never hear him laugh in all his life,” offered Roger.
“Lord Chesterfield hated noisy laughter as much as I do. There’s nothing more annoying than empty, silly giggling and laughter; but the laughter that means real delight over something worth being delighted at—that’s quite another matter. Lord Chesterfield and I are agreed in being opposed to a vulgar manner of laughing, but we are also agreed in believing that delight needs expression. Isn’t it in that same letter that he says he hopes he will often see his son smile?”
“Same place,” responded Roger briefly.
“Aunt Louise says she found that even if she wasn’t feeling really gay she could raise her spirits by doing her best to laugh at something. If you hunt hard enough there is almost always something funny enough to laugh at within reach of you.”
“Like Dicky here snoozing away as soundly as if he were in bed.”
“Poor little man. You needn’t carry him up yet, though. He’s not uncomfortable there.”
“There’s one thing I think is perfectly wonderful about Aunt Louise,” said Ethel Blue; “she takes so much pleasure out of little things. She’s interested in everything the U. S. C. does, and she wants to help on anything the town undertakes—you know how nice she was about the school gardens—and sometimes when a day comes that seems just stupid with nothing to do at all, if you go over to Aunt Louise’s she’ll tell you something she’s seen or heard that day that you never would have noticed for yourself and that really is interesting.”
“She gets their full value out of everything that passes before her eyes. It’s the wisest thing to do. The big things of life are more absorbing but very few of us encounter the big things of life. Most of us meet the small matters, the everyday happenings, and nothing else.”
“Isn’t life full of a mess of ’em!” ejaculated Roger. “Getting up and dressing and brushing your hair and eating three meals a day have to be done three hundred sixty-five times a year; whereas you hear some splendid music or come across a fine new poem or find yourself in a position where you can do a real kindness about once in a cat’s age. Queer, isn’t it?”
“That’s just why it’s a good plan to see the opportunities in the little things. If we see with clear eyes we may be able to do some small kindnesses oftener than ‘once in a cat’s age.’ It’s certainly true that the everyday troubles, the trifling annoyances, are really harder to bear than the big troubles.”