Good day! Good cheer! Good-bye! For then From "Friendly Rhymes," E. P. Dutton & Co. James W. Foley. MISTRESS FATE "Faint heart never won fair lady." Mistress Fate herself should be courted, not with feminine finesse, but with masculine courage and aggression. FLOUT her power, young mod She is merely shrewish, scolding, She is plastic to your molding, She is woman in her yielding to the fires desires fan. Fight her fair, strong man! Such a serpent love is this,- When she strikes, be nerved and ready; Keep your gaze both bright and steady, Chance no rapier-play, but hotly press the quarrel she began! Fight her fair, strong man! Gaze her down, old man! Not a shaft of scorn come nigh her, But she waits within the shadows, in dark shadows very near. And her silence is your fear. Meet her world-old eyes of warning! Gaze them down with courage! Can You gaze them down, old man? From "Merchants from Cathay," William Rose Benét. Yale University Press. SLEEP AND THE MONARCH (FROM "2 HENRY IV.") The great elemental blessings cannot be "cornered." Indeed they cannot be bought at all, but are the natural property of the man whose ways of life are such as to retain them. In this passage a disappointed and harassed king comments on the slumber which he cannot woo to his couch, yet which his humblest subject enjoys. OW many thousand of my poorest subjects How Are at this hour asleep! O sleep! O gentle sleep! And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Under the canopies of costly state, And lulled with sound of sweetest melody? O thou dull god! why liest thou with the vile Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains Who take the ruffian billows by the top, Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down! William Shakespeare. NEVER TROUBLE TROUBLE To borrow trouble is to contract a debt that any man is better without. If your troubles are not borrowed, they are not likely to be many or great. I USED to hear a saying It gave a cheerful spirit Not woes at hand, those coming We hear them stalk like giants, Just look at things through glasses One lens of them is courage, They'll make it clear, misgivings Are just a bugaboo; No more you'll trouble trouble St. Clair Adams. CLEAR THE WAY Humanity is always meeting obstacles. All honor to the men who do not fear obstacles, but push them aside and press on. Stephenson was explaining his idea that a locomotive steam engine could run along a track and draw cars after it. "But suppose a cow gets on the track," some one objected. "So much the worse," said Stephenson, "for the coo." Lo! a cloud's about to vanish And a brazen wrong to crumble With the Right shall many more Men of thought and men of action, Charles Mackay. ONE FIGHT MORE We need not expect much of the man who, when defeated, gives way either to despair or to a wild impulse for immediate revenge. But from the man who stores up his strength quietly and bides his time for a new effort, we may expect everything. NOW TOW, think you, Life, I am defeated quite? Mine be that warrior's blood who, stricken sore, The cause he lived for calls for him once more; Theodosia Garrison. From "The Earth Cry," |