ht and beautiful. Have you
noticed how, as soon as you can laugh over a vexation, the sting of it
is gone? And the best of it all is that you cannot be happy yourself
without casting a little light, even though it be but reflected
sunshine, into some other life.

William Dunbar, in 1479, said:

"Be merry, man, and take not sair to mind
The wavering of this wretched world of sorrow:
To God be humble, to thy friend be kind,
And with thy neighbor gladly lend and borrow;
His chance to-night, it may be thine to-morrow!
Be blyth in heart for any aventure,
How oft with wise men it has been said aforow,
Without gladness availes no treasure."

CHAPTER XXX.

THE FAMILY INVALID.

One of the most anomalous of the inconsistencies peculiar to human
nature is that we who are flesh, and consequently liable to all the
ills to which flesh is heir, should know so little about the manner in
which to check or, at least, alleviate these miseries. In the average
household the proper care of the sick is an unknown art, or one so
little understood that illness would seem to be an impossible
contingency.

The chamber of illness is at best a sadly uncomfortable place, and it
is the duty of the nurse, be she a hireling or the nearest and dearest
of kin to the prostrate inhabitant thereof, to be cognizant of the
methods of tending and easing the unfortunate being during the trying
period of his enforced idleness. Only those who have been confined to
a sick couch can appreciate its many trying features. The looker-on
sees a man or woman uncomfortable or in pain, lying in an easy bed,
"the best place for sick folk," with nothing to trouble him beyond the
bodily malease which holds him there. He is merely laid aside for
repairs, and, if the observer be somewhat wearied and overworked, he
is conscious of a pang of envy. But he does not think of the sleepless
nights through which the monotonous ticking of the clock is varied
only by the striking of the hours, each one of them seeming double its
actual length; or of the aching head and limbs; the feverish
restlessness which makes repose an impossibility; or--most trying of
all--the dumb nausea and loathing of the food, which, as one poor
woman complained of meals partaken in bed, "tastes of the mattress and
covers!"

The member of the family who is laid low by illness should receive the
first consideration of the entire household. Intelligent care and
nursing will be of more