yawned and said nothing.

Contentedman courteously explained that he was not interested, for the
very good reason that he had everything he wanted.

"I believe Busyman also lives here," said Opportunity. "Where is he? I
know he would be glad to see me."

"Indeed he would, but he's out. He's always busy running around.
You're not the first Opportunity that he's missed. Opportunities have
been knocking here regularly for years, but he's never at home. I tell
him it doesn't pay to be so busy."

Opportunity walked away with dejected mien.--_Life_.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds,
Makes ill deeds done!

--_Shakespeare_.

OPTIMISM

A part of what we might term the optimist's philosophy is--If you
can mend a situation mend it; if you can't mend it forget it.--_Ralph
Waldo Trine_.

If your confidence needs buttressing, just stop for a moment and
consider that this old world in which we have found such happiness has
throughout the past ages been visited by every catastrophe of which
the human mind can conceive, and from each of these dark periods it
has emerged always and eternally a progressive world.

Finally, I say, cheer up. Let's look on the bright side rather than
the dark side, and above all let us understand that there are no
insurmountable obstacles standing in the path of our progress, that we
are competent to solve the things that confront us, that they will
be solved, and that humankind will be benefited by the virtue of
our assuming an optimism in which we are fully justified.--_Lewis L.
Clark_.

LANDLADY--"Just when are you going to pay your arrears of room rent?"

HARD-UP AUTHOR--"As soon as I receive the check which the publisher
will send me if he accepts the novel I am about to commence when I
have found a suitable subject and the necessary inspiration."

An optimist is anybody who thinks he can write a new humorous
definition of an optimist or a pessimist. A pessimist is the same
person after he has made a serious attempt to do so.

An optimist looks at an oyster and expects a pearl. A pessimist looks
at an oyster and expects ptomaine poisoning.

THE OPTIMIST (who has just been struck by a passing motor-car)--"Glory
be! If this isn't a piece o' luck! Sure, 'tis the docther himself
that's in ut."--_Punch_.

"What's an optimist?"

"An optimist is a person who'll go into a restaurant without a cent in
his pocket and figure on paying for the meal with