The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bed-Book of Happiness, by Harold Begbie

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Title: The Bed-Book of Happiness

Author: Harold Begbie

Release Date: September 14, 2004 [EBook #13457]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BED-BOOK OF HAPPINESS ***

Produced by Paul Murray, Gene Smethers and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

"A GATHERING OF HAPPINESS, A CONCENTRATION AND COMBINATION OF PLEASANT
DETAILS, A THRONG OF GLAD FACES, A MUSTER OF ELATED HEARTS."

_CHARLOTTE BRONTE_

THE BED-BOOK OF HAPPINESS

Being a Colligation or Assemblage of Cheerful Writings brought together
from many quarters into this one compass for the diversion, distraction,
and delight of those who lie abed,--a friend to the invalid, a companion
to the sleepless, an excuse to the tired, by

HAROLD BEGBIE

HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

PRINTED IN 1914 BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

_to_

_SIR JESSE BOOT_

_If, in my pages, those who suffer find
Such cheer as warms your heart and lights your mind,
Glad shall I be, but gladder, prouder too,
If this my book become a friend like you_.

_RONDEL_

_BESIDE YOUR BED I COME TO STAY
WITH MAGIC MORE THAN HUMAN SKILL,
MY PAGES RUN TO DO YOUR WILL,
MY COVERS KEEP YOUR CARES AWAY.

THE NURSE ARRIVES WITH LADEN TRAY,
THE DOCTOR CANCELS DRAUGHT AND PILL;
BESIDE YOUR BED I COME TO STAY
WITH MAGIC MORE THAN HUMAN SKILL.

AND YOU THRO' FAERY LANDS WILL STRAY,
AT LAUGHTER'S FOUNTAIN DRINK YOUR FILL,
FOR THO' YOUR BODY CRY "I'M ILL!"
YOUR MIND WILL DANCE FROM NIGHT TO DAY.
BESIDE YOUR BED I COME TO STAY
WITH MAGIC MORE THAN HUMAN SKILL_.

THE RENDERING OF THANKS

To Mr. Austin Dobson and his publishers, Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench,
Truebner & Co., Ltd.

To Mr. R.A. Streatfeild, Mr. Henry Festing Jones, and Mr. A.C. Fifield,
the publisher, for permission to make use of "The Note Books of Samuel
Butler."

To Mr. W. Aldis Wright and Messrs. Macmillan for my quotations from "The
Letters of Edward FitzGerald."

To Mr. E.I. Carlyle, author of "T