d run;
Because the distant sun
Smiled on the earth he smiled.

He smiled because the sky
Was high above his head,
Because the rose was red,
Because the past was dead!
He never wondered why
The Lord had blundered so
That all things have to go
The wrong way, here below
The overarching sky.

He toiled, and still was glad
Because the air was free,
Because he loved, and she
That claimed his love and he
Shared all the joys they had!
Because the grasses grew,
Because the sweet winds blew,
Because that he could hew
And hammer, he was glad.

Because he lived he smiled,
And did not look ahead
With bitterness or dread,
But nightly sought his bed
As calmly as a child.
And people called him mad
For being always glad
With such things as he had,
And shook their heads and smiled.

--Samuel Ellsworth Kiser.

The soul contains a window where
It may receive the sun and air,
But some with self the window cloy,
And shut out all the light and joy.

--Nixon Waterman.

PRAISE

O Thou, whose bounty fills my cup
With every blessing meet!
I give thee thanks for every drop--
The bitter and the sweet.

I praise Thee for the desert road,
And for the riverside;
For all thy goodness hath bestowed,
And all thy grace denied.

I thank Thee for both smile and frown,
And for the gain and loss;
I praise thee for the future crown
And for the present cross.

I thank Thee for the wing of love
Which stirred my worldly nest;
And for the stormy clouds which drove
Me, trembling, to thy breast.

I bless Thee for the glad increase,
And for the waning joy;
And for this strange, this settled peace,
Which nothing can destroy.

--Jane Crewdson.

THANKSGIVING

Lord, for the erring thought
Not into evil wrought,
Lord, for the wicked will,
Betrayed and baffled still,
For the heart from itself kept,
Our thanksgiving accept.

For the ignorant hopes that were
Broken to our blind prayer;
For pain, death, sorrow, sent
Unto our chastisement;
For all loss of seeming good,
Quicken our gratitude.

--William Dean Howells.

RING, HAPPY BELLS

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
Fo