_Life Is No Problem_
Life is no problem to the heart That understands itself, That does not sit above, apart Upon some higher shelf.
And moralize on destiny And other things obscure, But has no more philosophy Than changeless love and pure.
Life is no problem to the mind That knows the way to live The habit just of being kind, The joy of just to give.
Life is no mystery at all To those who do not doubt But take this life as life befall And smile and live it out.
Do not with theories concern Yourself as on you go; There is but little we can learn, But little we can know.
Life is to live, to take the sweet The hidden fates have sent, To live each day the day you meet And try to be content.
So do not seek to tear the veil And read the heart of G.o.d.
Enough that He is in the gale And in the velvet sod.
Enough that He has given you The boon of days and years, The world of green, the sky of blue, And sunshine after tears.
--_Douglas Mallock_.
_The Match Box_
Life is a Match Box, and the Matches Ambitions, and unstruck desires; Youth the material that catches And kindles in the darkness fires.
And Love is like an idle fellow Who sets the match box in a blaze, And sees the blue flames and the yellow Shoot up and die beneath his gaze.
But Age is like a man returning Late homeward. Creeping in his socks He tries to get a candle burning, And finds he has an empty box.
The seven ages of man have been well tabulated by somebody or other on an acquisitive basis. Thus:
First age--Sees the earth.
Second age--Wants it.
Third age--Hustles to get it.
Fourth age--Decides to be satisfied with only half of it.
Fifth age--Becomes still more moderate.
Sixth age--Now content to possess a six-by-two strip of it.
Seventh age--Gets the strip.
_Wisdom_
When I have ceased to break my wings Against the faultiness of things, And learned that compromises wait Behind each hardly opened gate, When I can look life in the eyes Grown calm and very coldly wise, Life will have given me the Truth And taken in exchange--My Youth.
--_Sara Teasdale_.
LISPING
A young lady who lisped very badly was treated by a specialist, and learned to say the sentence: "Sister Susie"s Sewing Shirts for Soldiers."
She repeated it to her friends, and was praised upon her masterly performance.
"Yeth, but ith thuth an ectheedingly difficult remark to work into a converthathion--ethpethially when you conthider that I have no thither Thuthie."
LOGIC
"Sedentary work," said the college lecturer, "tends to lessen the endurance."
"In other words," b.u.t.ted in the smart student, "the more one sits the less one can stand."
"Exactly," retorted the lecturer; "and if one lies a great deal one"s standing is lost completely."
Two men were hotly discussing the merits of a book. Finally, one of them, himself an author, said to the other: "No, John, you can"t appreciate it. You never wrote a book yourself."
"No," retorted John, "and I never laid an egg, but I"m a better judge of an omelet than any hen."
LONDON
A teacher asked her cla.s.s to write an essay on London. She was surprised to read the following in one attempt:
"The people of London are noted for their stupidity."
The young author was asked how he got that idea.
"Please, miss," was the reply, "it says in the text-books the population of London is very dense."