MEETIN' TROUBLE

Some students of biology planned a trick on their professor. They took the head of one beetle, the body of another of a totally different species, the wings of a third, the legs of a fourth. These members they carefully pasted together. Then they asked the professor what kind of bug the creature was. He answered promptly, "A humbug.” Just such a monstrosity is trouble—especially future trouble. Some things about it are real, but the whole combined menace is only an illusion, not a thing which actually exists at all. Face the trouble itself; give no heed to that idea of it which invests it with a hundred dire calamities.

"ROUBLE in the distance seems all-fired bigSorter makes you shiver when you look at it

a-comin'; Makes you wanter edge aside, er hide, er take a swig Of somethin' that is sure to set your worried head

a-hummin'. Trouble in the distance is a mighty skeery fellerBut wait until it reaches you afore you start to beller! Trouble standin' in th' road and frownin' at you, black,

Makes you feel like takin' to the weeds along the way; Wish to goodness you could turn and hump yerself

straight back; Know 'twill be awful when he gets you close at bay! Trouble standin' in the road is bound to make you shyBut wait until it reaches you afore you start to cry! Trouble face to face with you ain't pleasant, but you'll find

That it ain't one-ha'f as big as fust it seemed to be; Stand up straight and bluff it out! Say, "I gotter a mind To shake my fist and skeer you off-you don't belong

ter me!” Trouble face to face with you? Though you mayn't feel

gay, Laugh at it as if you wuz-and it'll sneak away!

Everard Jack Appleton. From "The Quiet Courage," Stewart & Kidd Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.

PRESS ON

The spirit that has tamed this continent is the spirit which says, "Press on.” It appeals, not so much to men in the mass, as to individuals. There is only one way for mankind to go forward. Each individual must be determined that, come what will, he will never quail or recede.

PRESS

,

ESS ON! Surmount the rocky steps,

Climb boldly o'er the torrent's arch;
He fails alone who feebly creeps,

He wins who dares the hero's march.
Be thou a hero! Let thy might

Tramp on eternal snows its way,
And through the ebon walls of night

Hew down a passage unto day.

Press on! If once and twice thy feet

Slip back and stumble, harder try;
From him who never dreads to meet

Danger and death they're sure to fly.
To coward ranks the bullet speeds,

While on their breasts who never quail,
Gleams, guardian of chivalric deeds,

Bright courage like a coat of mail.

Press on! If Fortune play thee false

To-day, to-morrow she'll be true;
Whom now she sinks she now exalts,

Taking old gifts and granting new,
The wisdom of the present hour

Makes up the follies past and gone;
To weakness strength succeeds, and power
From frailty springs! Press on, press on!

Park Benjamin.

MY CREED

We all have a philosophy of life, whether or not we formulate it. Does it end in self, or does it include our relations and our duties to our fellows? General William Booth of the Salvation Army was once asked to send a Christmas greeting to his forces throughout the world. His life had been spent in unselfish service; over the cable he sent but one word-OTHERS.

THIS
THIS is my creed: To do some good,

To bear my ills without complaining,
To press on as a brave man should

For honors that are worth the gaining;
To seek no profits where I may,

By winning them, bring grief to others;
To do some service day by day

In helping on my toiling brothers.

This is my creed: To close my eyes

To little faults of those around me;
To strive to be when each day dies

Some better than the morning found me;
To ask for no unearned applause,

To cross no river until I reach it;
To see the merit of the cause

Before I follow those who preach it.

This is my creed: To try to shun

The sloughs in which the foolish wallow;
To lead where I may be the one

Whom weaker men should choose to follow.
To keep my standards always high,

To find my task and always do it;
This is my creed-I wish that I

Could learn to shape my action to it.

S. E. Kiser.

Permission of
S. E. Kiser.

CO-OPERATION

3-8-44 "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately,", Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

IT
T ain't the guns nor armament,

Nor funds that they can pay,
But the close co-operation,

That makes them win the day.

It ain't the individual,

Nor the army as a whole,
But the everlasting team-work
Of every bloomin' soul.

J. Mason Knox.

THE NOBLE NATURE

There is a deceptive glamour about mere bigness. Quality may accompany quantity, but it need not. In fact good things are usually done up in small parcels. “I could eat you at a mouthful,” roared a bulky opponent to the small and sickly Alexander H. Stephens. “If you did,” replied Stephens quietly, "you'd have more brains in your belly than ever you had in your head.”

IT
T is not growing like a tree

In bulk, doth make Man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:

A lily of a day

Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night,

It was the plant and flower of Light.
In small proportions we just beauties see;
And in short measures life may perfect be.

Ben Jonson.

DAYS OF CHEER

Edison says that genius is two parts inspiration, ninety-eight parts perspiration. So happiness is two parts circumstance, ninety-eight parts mental attitude.