No book is worth anything which is not worth much; nor is it serviceable, until it has been read, and reread, and loved, and loved again.—Ruskin. Therefore let it be determined between us, right here and now, that come what may, we shall each of us endeavor to keep a merry heart and a pleasant face. As we love to see a happy expression on the faces of our parents, brothers, sisters and friends, so must they enjoy seeing a pleasant look overspreading our Wise, cultivated, genial conversation is the best flower of civilization.—Emerson. features. And with this good and kindly resolve in our minds it will never be difficult for us to decide whether we shall give to the good world about us the gladness or the gloom that is embodied in
SONG OR SIGH
If you were a bird and shut in a cage,
Now what would you better do,—
Would you grieve your throat with a sorry note
And mourn the whole day through;
Or would you swing and chirp and sing,
Though the world were warped with wrong,
Till you filled one place with the perfect grace
And gladness of your song?
It is so easy to perceive other people’s little absurdities, and so difficult to discover our own.— Ellen Thornycroft Fowler. If you were a man and shut in a world,
Now what would you better do,—
On a gloomy day, when skies were gray,
Would you be gloomy, too?
When crossed with care would you let despair
Life’s happy hope destroy,
Or with a smile work on the while
You found the path to joy?
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE