[A SONG TO CHEER]
[AT A DOG'S HOME]
[THE WAYSIDE PULPIT]
[SPOONS]
[ABOVE DEFEAT]
[COURTESY]
[BUILDING PALACES]
[PRESERVES]
[WHEN FRIENDSHIP DIES]
[THE HARPIST]
[THE STRONG WILL]
[CONKERS]
[THE BEAUTY-REAPER]
[REMEMBER MAY]
[TO MY UMBRELLA]
[AN EASTER SONG]
[AT A PIANO RECITAL]
[SPRING CLEANINGS]
[DEER IN AUTUMN]
[COMPENSATIONS]
[LONDON TO GREENHITHE]
[THE LITTLE CANDLE]
[TO A CHILD]
[LIFE'S SONG]
[HOLIDAY MEMORIES]
[FAILURE]
[HIS 21ST BIRTHDAY]
[FELLOWSHIP]
[IN A LITTLE ROOM]
[DO IT NOW]
[ON ST. CRISPIN'S DAY]
[THE EVER YOUNG]
[BROADCAST FRIENDS]
[SEEKING HAPPINESS]
[THOUGHTS WHEN BULB-PLANTING]
[TO EACH HIS GIFT]
[IN AN APRIL GARDEN]
[THE QUIET HEART]
[DREAM-STREET CRIES]
[SPRING IS COMING]
[SALUTE TO THE BRAVE]
[MY VISITORS]
[THIS WAY BUT ONCE]
[WANDERING THOUGHTS]
[ON HAMPSTEAD HEATH]
[THE SEA OF LIFE]
[THE CARAVAN SETS FORTH]
[MARCH, THE LION]
[PLAY THE GAME]
[A PIECE OF PAPER]
[AFRAID, BUT UNDETERRED]
[TO SOME DAHLIAS]
[STEADFASTNESS]
[CANDLEMAS]
[THE COBWEB'S STRENGTH]
[A NICHT WI' BURNS]
[MY GUY FAWKES]
[CUPPED WINGS]
[EVEN AS YOU AND I]
[TROUBLE, THE TUNNEL]
A SONG TO CHEER
Here's a song to cheer us, when worry creeps too near us and burdens seem too heavy for our strength. Endurance oft grows double to match the large-sized trouble, and shorten by its presence the weary journey's length. And this there's no denying, when hearts are faint with sighing and all the future's given o'er to dread; the tiniest little ills, no bigger than mere pills, begin to swell and thicken and to spread! This thought is truly cheerful—whenever we are fearful of troubles we believe are coming fast—if they ever come at all, they prove so very small, before the day is ended they have passed.
AT A DOG'S HOME
Said a Cocker to a Pekinese, swinging his silky ears, "What is the date, oh, tell me, please, for each week seems like years!" And his mournful eyes looked misty with a doggy's unshed tears. The Peke replied, "I understand. Your family's away. And so is mine—a foreign land!" His nose expressed dismay. "But they're coming back, I know they are, in one more night and day." A gallant bulldog sniffed the air and spoke with British pride to that depressed and homesick pair, "I let my folks decide. This is a very kindly place and here I will abide...." He sniffs, he trembles. Can it be? He wags his tail, pricks up his ears, runs back and forth—(oh, were he free!) and through the kennel bars he peers, gives two sharp yaps of glad surprise and meets his master's loving eyes.
THE WAYSIDE PULPIT
Banks and hedgerows, woods and downs, all have felt the mystic Breath. Trees are donning lacy gowns, vanished winter's vaunt of death. The primrose lines the mossy banks; in the woods dance daffodils. Hearts are brimming o'er with thanks whilst the happy blackbird trills. Everywhere fresh signs of life; birds so busy with their nests. Shall we harbour thoughts of strife? Peace and Love would be our guests. Hum of insects fills the air, blackthorn robes the hedge in white; rosy is the flow'ring pear; daisies twinkle with delight. Bursting buds and leafing trees, catkins on the oak like lace. Voice of God on every breeze, in every little flow'r—His Face. Wayside Pulpits for His Voice! Oh, the comfort that they bring. Soul of Man, awake, rejoice! Blossom forth—for it is Spring.
SPOONS
there ought to be a tinkling rhyme for spoons we're using all the time, for special spoons with dainty faces that live in velvet-padded cases and only see the light of day when visitors have come to stay! For spoons we use at every meal that have a homey, friendly "feel"; for wooden spoons and spoons of tin and spoons by age worn sharp and thin. Long-handled spoons, and curved and short, and those that by-gone goldsmiths wrought. Big spoons for soup and small for tea and those that serve cook's artistry and spoons we've bought on holiday to prove we've really been away! Of all the spoons I've ever seen in any place that I have been, the one I like the best of all is specially made and neat and small, its handle looped that it can fit the dimpled hand that clutches it—the spoon that makes a dozen trips to Baby's laughing, rosy lips!