The Girl Wanted Part 5

And above all, we must find delight in the work we are privileged to do. "Every one should enjoy life," writes the ever glad and inspiring pen guided by the hand of Patrick Flynn: "Life was made to enjoy. We mean life, itself. The very living and breathing. It is a divine pleasure to inhale a breath of fragrant air out here in the country these charming summer mornings. And what jewels can compare in color or brilliancy with the pearly dewdrops that s.h.i.+ne and glisten in the early sun! And the sun, itself! The great, mysterious, miraculous sun!

Its myriads of vibrations dancing in the warm air like golden fairies and dazzling one's eyes with their wondrous beauty! Aye, and filling one's soul with love and one's body with health. And in the evening when the day's work is done there is above us that mysterious depth of star-spangled sky. We cannot fathom its mystery but like a stream of grace descending from heaven, we can feel the cool, refres.h.i.+ng dew on our upturned brow. Until at last we feel that we should like to take wing and actually fly up among those unknown worlds and come back with the story to our readers. And even though we cannot grow the wings, we go up in fancy and seldom come back without some new tale. The message is: 'Live life, love life, enjoy life, if you would overcome all fear of death.'"

That is the spirit in which we should look upon all the beauty and wonder about us. To-morrow will ever be a joyous hope and yesterday a golden memory, if we are thoughtful regarding the manner in which we live

TO-DAY

Let's live to-day so it shall be, When shrined within the memory, As free from self-inflicted sorrows As are our hopes of our to-morrows.

There are many who make the serious mistake of thinking that joyousness and cheerfulness are only for the play hour and are not to be made a part and factor of the time we must devote to toil. No view could be more faulty and regrettable. It is in our working hours that we should seek to be cheerful and suns.h.i.+ny. All of our tasks should be sweetened and glorified with the leaven of good humor.

The task seems never very long If measured with a smile and song.

Listen while one faithful worker, Emory Belle, tells us how she carried the spirit of good cheer to her daily tasks and what came of it:

"I started out to my work one morning, determined to try the power of cheerful thinking (I had been moody long enough). I said to myself: 'I have often observed that a happy state of mind has a wonderful effect upon my physical make-up, so I will try its effect upon others, and see if my right thinking can be brought to act upon them.' You see, I was curious. As I walked along, more and more resolved on my purpose, and persisting that I was happy, that the world was treating me well, I was surprised to find myself lifted up, as it were; my carriage became more erect, my step lighter, and I had the sensation of treading on air. Unconsciously, I was smiling, for I caught myself in the act once or twice. I looked into the faces of the women I pa.s.sed and there saw so much trouble and anxiety, discontent, even to peevishness, that my heart went out to them, and I wished I could impart to them a wee bit of the suns.h.i.+ne I felt pervading me.

"Arriving at the office, I greeted the book-keeper with some pa.s.sing remark, that for the life of me I could not have made under different conditions, I am not naturally witty; it immediately put us on a pleasant footing for the day; she had caught the reflection. The president of the company I was employed by was a very busy man and much worried over his affairs, and at some remark that he made about my work I would ordinarily have felt quite hurt (being too sensitive by nature and education); but this day I had determined nothing should mar its brightness, so replied to him cheerfully. His brow cleared, and there was another pleasant footing established, and so throughout the day I went, allowing no cloud to spoil its beauty for me or others about me. At the kind home where I was staying the same course was pursued, and, where before I had felt estrangement and want of sympathy, I found congeniality and warm friends.h.i.+p. People will meet you half-way if you will take the trouble to go that far.

"So, my sisters, if you think the world is not treating you kindly don't delay a day, but say to yourselves: 'I am going to keep young in spite of my gray hairs; even if things do not always come my way I am going to live for others, and shed suns.h.i.+ne across the pathway of all I meet.' You will find happiness springing up like flowers around you, will never want for friends or companions.h.i.+p, and above all the peace of G.o.d will rest upon your soul."

And all of this was brought about by a change in the att.i.tude of the mind and a determination to look upon the suns.h.i.+ny, rather than the dark, side of life. We can all do as much. It is for us to say whether we will be happy and make others happy, or whether we shall be distressed and thereby distress others.

What sort of girl are you going to be? Are you going to make the world glad or sorry that you are in it? Why don't you decide, as you read these lines, as did Emory Belle when starting to her work that morning, that you will try to carry suns.h.i.+ne and not gloom into the lives of all you meet? Let us hope that there is no great reform in this matter to be worked in your life; but that you have ever been a joy-bringer and not a gloom-maker.

Therefore let us look well to the att.i.tude of mind and our habit of looking at things. One of our careful students of human attributes tells us--and the truth of which we all know--"that there is nothing surer than that we go and grow in just that direction in which our mind is most firmly fixed. h.o.a.rding money absorbs the whole time and mind of the miser; how to scatter it is the chief thought of the spendthrift. Our daily actions, and their result on our lives, are the effect of a cause--and that cause is invariably our previous thought.

What you think most of to-day will be most likely what you will repeat to-morrow. Therefore it is of the utmost importance that we begin to think as deeply as possible on just those things that build us up.

Half the work is already done if we can only concentrate our minds on that which we desire to do. It is the mind that drags us either up or down. Where that leads we follow. The power of direction is with us, but we cannot send our mind in one direction and then take the opposite road ourselves. Therefore, whether we are moving upward or downward in the scale of life depends on whether we are thinking up or thinking down. This is a truth that every person's experience will prove to his own satisfaction. Thought impels action, action forms habit, and habit rules our lives. So that no matter what direction we may wish to take, up or down, it is only necessary for us to fix our mind in the desired direction."

So let us pause and take an account of stock and ascertain whether we are thinking ourselves up or down, whether we are building truthfully or falsely, whether we are going forward or backward,

JUST THIS MINUTE

If we're thoughtful, just this minute, In whate'er we say or do; If we put a purpose in it That is honest, through and through, We shall gladden life and give it Grace to make it all sublime; For, though life is long, we live it Just this minute at a time.

Just this minute we are going Toward the right or toward the wrong, Just this minute we are sowing Seeds of sorrow or of song.

Just this minute we are thinking On the ways that lead to G.o.d, Or in idle dreams are sinking To the level of the clod.

Yesterday is gone, to-morrow Never comes within our grasp; Just this minute's joy or sorrow, That is all our hands may clasp.

Just this minute! Let us take it As a pearl of precious price, And with high endeavor make it Fit to s.h.i.+ne in paradise.

One who finds joy in the doing of things can work more easily and steadily than one who works unwillingly and unhappily. Good nature is a lubricant for all the wheels of life. It changes the leaden feet of duty into the airy wings of opportunity, it not only brings happiness but that almost necessary adjunct of happiness,--health.

"In the maintenance of health and the cure of disease," says Dr. A. J.

Sanderson, "cheerfulness is a most important factor. Its power to do good like a medicine is not an artificial stimulation of the tissues, to be followed by reaction and greater waste, as is the case with many drugs; but the effect of cheerfulness is an actual life-giving influence through a normal channel the results of which reach every part of the system. It brightens the eye, makes ruddy the countenance, brings elasticity to the step, and promotes all the inner forces by which life is sustained. The blood circulates more freely, the oxygen comes to its home in the tissues, health is promoted, and disease is banished."

When we note how generally the members of the medical profession ascribe to cheerfulness the very highest of health-giving powers, we are led to think that the wise words quoted above possess a foundation of scientific fact. "Faith, hope and love," says Charles G. Ames, "are purifiers of the blood. They have a peptic quality. They open and enlarge all the channels of bodily vitality. As was learned long ago, 'A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.' And the self-control which keeps reason on the throne and makes pa.s.sion serve is the best of all domestic physicians."

So the girl who would go down the paths of suns.h.i.+ne will put joy and enthusiasm into her work and into her play. She will practice her music lesson, take up her studies at school, a.s.sist in performing the household duties, and in doing the many tasks that come to her hands in a joyous, whole-hearted manner.

In so doing she will make a pleasure of that which, with dull complaining, would be a drag and a distress. By this cheerful att.i.tude of mind she will be able to mold all things to her will and, better still, she will be able to mold her will to her highest ideal of splendid womanhood. For none can doubt that man is the architect of his own fortune, to a very great extent. He is even more than that, he is of his own self

THE SCULPTOR

I am the sculptor: I, myself, the clay, Of which I am to fas.h.i.+on, as I will, In deed and in desire, day by day, The pattern of my purpose, good or ill.

In breathless bronze nor the insensate stone Must my enduring pa.s.sion find its goal; Within the living statue I enthrone That essence of eternity, the soul.

Nor s.p.a.ce nor time that soul of yearning bars; It flashes to the zenith of the sky, And dwelling mid the mystery of the stars, Aspires to answer the Eternal Why.

It loves the pleasing note of lute and lyre, The lily's purple, the red rose's glow; It wonders at the witchery of the fire, And marvels at the magic of the snow.

"Who taught," it asks, "the ant to build her nest?

The bee her cells? the hermit thrush to sing?

The dove to plume his iridescent breast?

The b.u.t.terfly to paint his gorgeous wing?

"The spider how to spin so wondrous wise?

The nautilus to form his chambered sh.e.l.l?

The carrier-pigeon under alien skies, Who taught him how his homeward course to tell?"

By force or favor it would win from fate The sacred secret of the blood and breath: Learn all the hidden springs of love and hate, And gain dominion over life and death.

In every feature of this sculptured face Of spirit and of substance, I must mold The s.h.i.+ning symbol of a grander grace; The hope toward which the centuries have rolled.

Oh, hands of mine that the unnumbered years Evolved from hoof and wing and claw and fin, 'T is ours to bring from out the stress and tears, A G.o.dlike figure fas.h.i.+oned from within.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOUISA M. ALCOTT]

[Transcriber's Note: Sidenote quotations from the preceeding chapter are gathered in this section.]

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.

--Emerson.

Gentle words, quiet words, are, after all, the most powerful words.

--Was.h.i.+ngton Gladden.

Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

--Th.o.r.eau.

Nothing will be mended by complaints.--Johnson.

Peace! Peace! How sweet the word and tender! Its very sound should wrangling discord still.--Nathan Haskell Dole.

The Spartans did not inquire how many the enemy are, but where they are.--Agis II.

The man in whom others believe is a power, but if he believes in himself he is doubly powerful.--Willis George Emerson.