and in the crucible of character their suffering itself is transmuted into song.
Defeat may serve as well as victory
To shake the soul and let the glory out.
When the great oak is straining in the wind,
The boughs drink in new beauty, and the trunk
Sends down a deeper root on the windward side.
Only the soul that knows the mighty grief
Can know the mighty rapture. Sorrows come
To stretch out spaces in the heart for joy.
Edwin Markham.
From "The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems."
THE RICHER MINES
No man is so poor but that he is a stockholder. Yet many a man has no real riches; his stocks draw dividends in dollars and cents only.
When it comes to buying shares
In the mines of earth,
May I join the millionaires
Who are rich in mirth.
Let me have a heavy stake
In fresh mountain air—
I will promise now to take
All that you can spare.
When you're setting up your claim
In the Mines of Glee,
Don't forget to use my name—
You can count on me.
Nothing better can be won,
Freer from alloy,
Than a bouncing claim in "Con-
Solidated Joy."