Ring in the valiant man and free, Alfred Tennyson. WORK The dog that dropped his bone to snap at its reflection in the water went dinnerless. So do we often lose the substance—the joy-of our work by longing for tasks we think better fitted to our capabilities. ET me but do my work from day to day, LE In field or forest, at the desk or loom, "This is my work; my blessing, not my doom; Then shall I see it not too great, nor small, Henry Van Dyke. From "Collected Poems," START WHERE YOU STAND When a man who had been in the penitentiary applied to Henry Ford for employment, he started to tell Mr. Ford his story. "Never mind," said Mr. Ford, "I don't care about the past. Start where you stand!"-Author's note. START wast won't help you in beginning new, TART where you stand and never mind the past, If you have left it all behind at last Why, that's enough, you're done with it, you're through; This is another chapter in the book, This is another race that you have planned, Don't give the vanished days a backward look, Start where you stand. The world won't care about your old defeats The future is your time, and time is fleet And there is much of work and strain and stress; Forget the buried woes and dead despairs, Here is a brand new trial right at hand, The future is for him who does and dares, Start where you stand. Old failures will not halt, old triumphs aid, And leave the past to ancient history; Berton Braley, From "A Banjo at Armageddon," George H. Doran Co., Publishers. A HOPEFUL BROTHER A Cripple Creek miner remarked that he had hunted for gold for twenty-five years. He was asked how much he had found. "None," he replied, "but the prospects are good." F you ask him, day or night, When the worl' warn't runnin' right, "Anything that's good in sight?" This is allus what he'd say, In his uncomplainin' way— "Well, I'm hopin'. When the winter days waz nigh, Dyin', asked of him that night Frank L. Stanton. Printed in and permission from "The Atlanta Constitution." A SONG OF THANKSGIVING We should have grateful spirits, not merely for personal bene fits, but also for the right to sympathize, to understand, to help, to trust, to struggle, to aspire. THANK God I can rejoice In human things-the multitude's glad voice, The street's warm surge beneath the city light, The rush of hurrying faces on my sight, The million-celled emotion in the press That would their human fellowship confess. Thank Thee because I may my brother feed, That Thou hast opened me unto his need, Kept me from being callous, cold and blind, Taught me the melody of being kind. Thus, for my own and for my brother's sake→ Thank Thee I am awake! Thank Thee that I can trust! That though a thousand times I feel the thrust The perfect mould in which his soul was set. Thank Thee that I can hear, Finely and keenly with the inner ear, Where the great organ lifts its glowing spires, There sounds the chanting of the unseen choirs. Thank Thee that I can feel! That though life's blade be terrible as steel, To think, to yearn, to strive, To suffer torture when the goal is wrong, By all the good the grim experience wrought; Thank God I am alive! From "The Hour Has Struck," The John Lane Co. Angela Morgan. LOSE THE DAY LOITERING Anything is hard to begin, whether it be taking a cold bath, writing a letter, clearing up a misunderstanding, or falling to on the day's work. Yet "a thing begun is half done." No matter how unpleasant a thing is to do, begin it and immediately it becomes less unpleasant. Form the excellent habit of making a start. LOSE the day loitering, 'twill be the same story To-morrow, and the next more dilatory, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. |