MEETIN' TROUBLE He 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. 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 big TRO Sorter 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! From "The Quiet Courage," Stewart & Kidd Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. Everard Jack Appleton. 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 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. Tramp on eternal snows its way, Press on! If once and twice thy feet Press on! If Fortune play thee false Makes up the follies past and gone; 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. HIS is my creed: To do some good, THIS To bear my ills without complaining, To press on as a brave man should By winning them, bring grief to others; This is my creed: To close my eyes 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, S. E. Kiser. Permission of S. E. Kiser. CO-OPERATION "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. Rudyard Kipling. Reprinted by permission of Mr. Rudyard Kipling, From "Rudyard Kipling's Verse, 1885-1918," 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." T It is not growing like a better be; Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, A lily of a day Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night— Ben Jonson. |