from heaven?"

"Yes, dear; why do you ask?"

"Well, no wonder the angels bounced him," the boy replied.

I know a woman who is forever telling her trials. If you do not listen
to her story you must read it on her countenance. Nearby is another
who has lost her parents; indeed all her near relatives are gone; not
a flower left to bloom on the desert of old age. Yet, she hides her
sorrows beneath the soul's altar of hope and meets the world with a
smile. Doubtless the first woman wonders why she is so slighted and
the company of the other courted. She should know it is for the same
reason that honey-bees and humming birds light on sweet flowers
instead of dry mullien stalks, and mocking-birds and canaries are
caged instead of owls and rain-crows.

Some persons seem to relish the "cold soup of retrospect" and persist
in picking the "bones of regret," without any appetite for the present
or promises of the future. Beside one of these I would place a
happy-hearted soul, who laughs through the window of the eye and on
whose face you can read,

"Let those who will, repine at fate,
And droop their heads in sorrow,
I'll laugh when cares upon me wait,
I know they'll leave to-morrow.

"My purse is light, but what of that?
My heart is light to match it;
And if I tear my only coat,
I'll laugh the while I patch it."

I know a millionaire, who controls numerous industries, whose wife
must apply cold cloths to his head at night to induce sleep. I know
another man not so well off in this world's goods, whose wife must
apply the cold water to get him awake. Care is often pillowed in a
palace, while contentment is asleep in a cottage.

At the close of my lecture at a chautauqua several years ago, a
gentleman said to me: "Sir, we live in a very humble cottage in this
town, but there is a big welcome over the door for you and we want you
to take tea with us." I accepted the invitation and soon was seated on
the porch of the small cottage home. While my host was inside getting
a pitcher of ice water, I looked across the way and there was the home
of a railroad king, his wealth numbered by millions, and the grounds
surrounding his home were rich in flower beds, fountains and forest
trees. My host, pouring the water, said: "You see we are very
fortunately situated here. Our little home is inexpensive and our
taxes very light. Our rich neighbor across the way employs three
gardeners to care for those grounds