That ever with a frolic welcome took Push off, and sitting well in order smite It may be that the gulfs will wash us down; Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will Alfred Tennyson. FOR PREPAREDNESS OR all your days prepare, When you are the anvil, bear— When you are the hammer, strike. Edwin Markham. From "The Gates of Paradise, and Other Poems," Doubleday, Page & Co. THE WISDOM OF FOLLY "Jog on, jog on, the footpath way, Shakespeare's lilting stanza conveys a great truth-the power of cheerfulness to give impetus and endurance. The a at the end of lines is merely an addition in singing; the word hent means take. HE cynics say that every rose Es guarded by a thorn which grows To spoil our posies; But I no pleasure therefore lack; I keep my hands behind my back Though outwardly a gloomy shroud I therefore turn my clouds about, My modus operandi this To take no heed of what's amiss; Because, as Shakespeare used to say, Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler. (The Honorable Mrs. Alfred Felkin.) Permission of the Author. From "Verses Wise and Otherwise," SEE IT THROUGH An American traveler in Italy stood watching a lumberman who, as the logs floated down a swift mountain stream, jabbed his hook in an occasional one and drew it carefully aside. "Why do you pick out those few?" the traveler asked. "They all look alike." "But they are not alike, seignior. The logs I let pass have grown on the side of a mountain, where they have been protected all their lives. Their grain is coarse; they are good only for lumber. But these logs, seignior, grew on the top of the mountain. From the time they were sprouts and saplings they were lashed and buffeted by the winds, and so they grew strong with fine grain. We save them for choice work; they are not 'lumber,' seignior." THEN you're up against a trouble, WHEN Meet it squarely, face to face; Lift your chin and set your shoulders, Black may be the clouds about you Even hope may seem but futile, From "Just Folks," Edgar A. Guest. DECEMBER 31 If January I is an ideal time for renewed consecration, December 31 is an ideal time for thankful reminiscence. The year has not brought us everything we might have hoped, but neither has it involved us in everything we might have feared. Many are the perils, the failures, the miseries we have escaped, and life to us is still gracious and wholesome and filled to the brim with satisfaction. B EST day of all the year, since I May see thee pass and know That if thou dost not leave me high With them that keep the upward way. Best day of all the year to me, That might have led to misery, Or might have ended at Disgrace- Best day of all days of the year, S. E. Kiser Permission et RING OUT, WILD BELLS This great New Year's piece belongs almost as well to every day in the year, since it expresses a social ideal of justice and happiness. RING out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring out the grief that saps the mind, Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring out the want, the care, the sin, Ring out false pride in place and blood, Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; |