808.8 
 
 ™« BOOK of 
 
 QOOD CHEER 
 
 L8TTI.K BUNDLE Q? 
 CHCERY THOUGHTS’ 
 
IBKARY 
 OF THE 
 
 U N I VERS ITY 
 Or ILLINOIS 
 Received by bequest from 
 
 Albert H. Lybyer 
 Professor of History 
 University of Illinois 
 1916-1949 
 
 8088 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/bookofgoodcheera00grov_0 
 
The Book of Good Cheer 
 
 “A Little Bundle of Cheery Thoughts' ’ 
 
TO 
 
 THE ONE WHO HAS LOST 
 HIS SMILE 
 
THE BOOK OF 
 
 GOOD CHEER 
 
 "A LITTLE BUNDLE OF CHEERY THOUGHTS” 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 EDWIN OJGOOD GROVER 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 P.F. VOLLAND & CO. 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO 
 
THE VOLLAND 
 GOOD CHEER SERIES 
 
 OF 
 
 GIFT BOOKS 
 
 
 The Book of Good Cheer 
 
 .60 
 
 From Me to You 
 
 .60 
 
 Just Being Happy 
 
 .60 
 
 From Friend to Friend 
 
 .60 
 
 Poems That Have Helped Me 
 
 At all bookstores or sent on receipt 
 of price plus 10c postage 
 
 .60 
 
 P. F. VOLLAND COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 Copyright, 1913 
 Copyright, 1916 
 P. F. VOLLAND & CO. 
 
 ENTERED AT STATIONERS* HALL, LONDON 
 
 (All Rights Reserved) 
 
%o?. V 
 
 The Book of Good Cheer 
 
 * 
 
 G OOD CHEER is contagious. It is an outward expres- 
 sion of an inward faith that 
 
 “God’s in his Heaven, 
 
 All’s right with the world!” 
 
 The man who radiates good cheer, who makes life happier 
 wherever he meets it, is always a man of vision and of faith. 
 He sees the blossoming flower in the tiny seed, the silver 
 lining to every cloud, and a beautiful to-morrow in the darkest 
 to-day. 
 
 Good cheer is something more than faith in the future, it 
 is gratitude for the past and joy in the present. Life for all 
 of us has its hardships and disappointments. It is out of 
 such stuff as this that human character is made. But after 
 all this world is a pretty good place and we at least owe each 
 other the courtesy of a smiling face and the inspiration of a 
 cheery word. 
 
 To go about our work with pleasure, to greet others with 
 a word of encouragement, to be happy in the present and 
 confident of the future, this is to have achieved some measure 
 of success in living. 
 
 This “Little Bundle of Cheery Thoughts” has been 
 gathered through long years of joyous search for the right 
 word fitly spoken. They come from some of the wisest men 
 of all time and ought to be perpetual inspiration to us all. 
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
THE GOSPEL OP GOOD CHEER 
 By Edwin Osgood Grover 
 
 I N the laughter of the little brook 
 That runs its merry way. 
 
 From the mountain-sides of Yesterday 
 To the meadows of To-day; 
 
 In the song of every happy bird, 
 
 In the bloom of every flower. 
 
 In the blue, blue sky above us, 
 
 And the sun behind the shower; 
 
 In the laughter of the children. 
 
 In the faces that they bear, — 
 
 Behold the joyous tidings. 
 
 And the glory everywhere! 
 
 There’s a smile wher’er we journey, 
 There’s a laugh we all may hear, 
 
 If we’ll only hark and listen 
 To the Gospel of Good Cheer. 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 C LOUDS may come, but clouds must go. 
 
 And they have a silver lining. 
 
 For beyond them all, you know, 
 
 Either sun or moon is shining. 
 
 So with trouble; 'tis quite plain 
 Time at last will take its measure; 
 
 Rainbows follow after rain, 
 
 Life must have its meed of pleasure. 
 
 —J. A. W. 
 
 $ 
 
 G OD bless the heart of sunshine 
 
 That smiles the clouds away. 
 
 And sets a star of fresh-born hope 
 In some one's sky each day. 
 
 God bless all words of kindness 
 
 That lift the heart from gloom, 
 
 And in life's barren places 
 
 Plant flowers of love to bloom. 
 
 — A. H. G. 
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
mzm THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER m 
 
 SUNSHINE 
 
 S° 
 
 MEWHERE on the great world the sun is always 
 shining and just so sure as you live, it will sometime 
 shine on you. The dear God has made it so. There is 
 so much sunshine we must all have our share. 
 
 — Myrtle Reed . 
 
 I I KE the star 
 
 ji Which shines afar. 
 Without haste. 
 Without rest, 
 
 Let each one wheel 
 With steady stay 
 Round the task 
 Which rules the day 
 And do his best. 
 
 IP 
 
 I AM bigger than anything that can happen to me. All 
 these things, sorrow, misfortune and suffering, are out- 
 side my door. I am in the house and I have the key. 
 
 — Charles F . Lummis . 
 
 E AT less; breathe more. 
 
 Talk less; think more. 
 
 Ride less; walk more. 
 Clothe less; bathe more. 
 Worry less; work more. 
 Waste less; give more. 
 Preach less; practice more. 
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER %,m 
 
 TO-DAY 
 
 T HINK not on yesterday, nor trouble borrow 
 On what may be in store for you To-morrow, 
 
 But let To-day be your incessant care, — 
 
 The past is past, To-morrow's in the air. 
 
 Who gives To-day the best that in him lies 
 Will find the road that leads to clearer skies. 
 
 ^ — John Kendrick Bangs . 
 
 I T is not raining rain to me, 
 
 It's raining daffodils. 
 
 In every dimpled drop I see 
 Wild flowers'on the hills. 
 
 The clouds of gray engulf the day 
 And overwhelm the town; 
 
 It is not raining rain to me, 
 
 It's raining roses down. 
 
 It is not raining rain to me, 
 
 But fields of clover bloom. 
 
 Where any buccaneering bee 
 Can find a bed and room. 
 
 A health unto the happy, 
 
 A fig for him who frets! 
 
 It is not raining rain to me, 
 
 It's raining violets! 
 
 * 
 
 WIXT optimist and pessimist the difference is droll; 
 The optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist the hole. 
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
m THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER' 31 
 
 THE TASK OF HAPPINESS 
 
 I F I have faltered more or less 
 In my great task of happiness; 
 
 If I have moved among my race 
 And shown no glorious morning face; 
 
 If beams from happy human eyes 
 Have moved me not; if morning skies. 
 
 Books, and my food, and summer rain 
 Knocked on my sullen heart in vain: — 
 
 Lord, Thy most pointed pleasure take 
 And stab my spirit broad awake; 
 
 Or, Lord, if too obdurate I, 
 
 Choose Thou, before that spirit die, 
 
 A piercing pain, a killing sin, 
 
 And to my dead heart run them in ! 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 m 
 
 HEN the outlook is not good, try the uplook. 
 
 T HE wealth of a man is the number of things he loves 
 and blesses, which he is loved and blessed by. 
 
 — Thomas Carlyle . 
 
 W 
 
 T O give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is 
 better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer. 
 
 — Saadi 
 
 I WOULD rather be able to appreciate things I cannot 
 have, than to have things I am not able to appreciate. 
 
 [ io] 
 
^2riHE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER Qg§ 
 
 W E just shake hands at meeting 
 With many that come nigh; 
 
 We nod the head in greeting 
 To many that go by — 
 
 But welcome through the gateway 
 Our few old friends and true; 
 
 Then hearts leap up, and straightway 
 There's open house for you, 
 
 Old friends, 
 
 There’s open house for you! 
 
 — Gerald Massey. 
 
 M Y BUSINESS is not to remake myself, 
 
 But to make the absolute best of what God made. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 D O not keep the alabaster box of your love and tender- 
 ness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their 
 lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering 
 words while their ears can hear them, and while their 
 hearts can be thrilled and made happier. The kind 
 things you mean to say when they are gone, say before 
 they go. The flowers you mean to send for their 
 coffin, send to brighten and sweeten their homes 
 before they leave them. 
 
 Let us learn to anoint our friends while they are yet 
 among the living. Post-mortem kindness does not 
 cheer the burdened heart; flowers on the coffin cast 
 no fragrance backward over the weary way. 
 
 — George W. Childs. 
 
 [ii] 
 
K28THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 G OD help me speak the little word 
 And take my bit of singing. 
 
 9 
 
 1 FIND earth not gray but rosy, 
 
 Heaven not grim but fair of hue. 
 
 Do I stoop? I pluck a posy. 
 
 Do I stand and stare? All’s blue. 
 
 — Robert Browning. 
 
 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 H IGH thoughts and noble in all lands 
 Help me; my soul is fed by such. 
 
 But ah, the touch of lips and hands, — 
 
 The human touch! 
 
 Warm, vital, close, life’s symbols dear,— 
 
 These need I most, and now, and here. 
 
 — Richard Burton . 
 
 IF THAT WERE ENOUGH 
 
 T O thrill with the joy of girded men, 
 
 To go on forever and fail and go on again, 
 
 To be mauled to the earth and arise, 
 
 And contend for the shade of a word and a thing 
 not seen with the eyes: 
 
 With the half of a broken hope for a pillow at night, 
 
 That somehow the right is the right 
 
 And the smooth shall bloom from the rough: 
 
 Lord, if that were enough! _ . r . 0 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 [ 12 ] 
 
m3 THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 O NE who claims that he knows about it 
 Tells me the earth is a vale of sin; 
 
 But I and the bees, and the birds, we doubt it, 
 And think it a world worth living in. 
 
 — Ella Wheeler Wilcox . 
 
 # 
 
 T HE inner side of every cloud is bright and shining; 
 I therefore turn my clouds about 
 And always wear them inside out 
 To show the lining. —Ellen Thorncroft Fowler. 
 
 I T’S the song ye sing, and the smiles ye wear, 
 That’s a-makin’ the sun shine everywhere. 
 
 — James Whitcomb Riley . 
 
 $ 
 
 I F the world is going wrong, 
 
 Forget it! 
 
 Sorrow never lingers long — 
 
 Forget it! 
 
 If your neighbor bears ill-will, 
 
 If your conscience won’t be still. 
 
 If you owe an ancient bill! 
 
 Forget it! 
 
 * 
 
 T HE soul would have no rainbow 
 Had the eyes no tears. 
 
 — John Vance Cheney . 
 
 [13] 
 
®S2§ THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER Ggg 
 
 S PIN cheerfully. 
 
 Not tearfully, 
 
 Though wearily you plod. 
 
 Spin carefully. 
 
 Spin prayerfully, 
 
 But leave the thread with God. 
 
 3r 
 
 W HAT we call Luck 
 Is simply Pluck, 
 
 And doing things over and over; 
 Courage and will. 
 
 Perseverance and skill, — 
 
 Are the four leaves of Luck’s clover. 
 
 £ 
 
 THE GIST OF LIFE 
 
 O TO be up and doing, O 
 
 Unfearing and unshamed to go 
 In all the uproar and the press 
 About my human business! 
 
 My undissuaded heart I hear 
 Whisper courage in my ear. 
 
 With voiceless calls, the ancient earth 
 Summons me to a daily birth. 
 
 Thou, O my love, ye, O my friends — 
 
 The gist of life, the end of ends — 
 
 To laugh, to love, to live, to die. 
 
 Ye call me by the ear and eye! 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson, 
 
 [14] 
 
W%3‘ THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER OSS 
 
 OUR KIND OF A MAN 
 
 T HE kind of a man for you and me! 
 
 He faces the world unflinchingly, 
 
 And smiles as long as the wrong exists, 
 
 With a knuckled faith and force like fists: 
 
 He lives the life he is preaching of, 
 
 And loves where most is the need of love; 
 
 And feeling still, with a grief half glad, 
 
 That the bad are as good as the good are bad, 
 He strikes straight out for the right — and he 
 Is the kind of a man for you and me! 
 
 — James Whitcomb Riley . 
 
 I F YOU have knowledge, let others light their candles 
 by it. — Thomas Fuller. 
 
 9 
 
 T HE people who always live in houses, and sleep on 
 beds, and walk on pavements, and buy their food from 
 butchers and bakers and grocers, are not the most 
 blessed inhabitants of this wide and various earth. 
 The circumstances of their existence are too mathe- 
 matical and secure for perfect contentment. They live 
 at second or third hand. They are boarders in the 
 world. Everything is done for them by somebody else. 
 
 — Henry van Fyke. 
 
 I N THE school of life many branches of knowledge are 
 taught. But the only philosophy that amounts to 
 anything after all, is just the secret of making friends 
 with our luck. — Henry van Dyke. 
 
SsS»THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER BESS! 
 
 THE SONG ON THE WAY 
 
 A NY way the old world goes 
 Happy be the weather! 
 
 With the red thorn or the rose 
 Singin' all together! 
 
 Don't you see that sky o' blue! 
 
 Good Lord painted it for you! 
 
 Reap the daisies in the dew 
 Singin' all together! 
 
 Springtime sweet, an' frosty fall 
 Happy be the weather! 
 
 Earth has gardens for us all, 
 
 Goin' on together. 
 
 Sweet the labor in the light, 
 
 To the harvest's gold and white — 
 
 Till the toilers say “Good night," 
 
 Singin' all together! 
 
 * 
 
 THREE KINDS OF COURAGE 
 
 T HERE'S the courage that nerves you in starting to climb 
 The mount of success rising sheer; 
 
 And when you've slipped back there's the courage 
 sublime 
 
 That keeps you from shedding a tear. 
 
 These two kinds of courage, I give you my word, 
 
 Are worthy of tribute — but then. 
 
 You'll not reach the summit unless you've the third— 
 The courage of try-it-again! 
 
 — Roy Farrell Greene . 
 
 [ 16 ] 
 
I 
 
 THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 MAGINATION is the supreme gift of the gods, and the 
 degree of its possession is the measure of any man’s 
 advantage over circumstance— the measure of his clutch 
 on Success. — James Howard Kehler. 
 
 G OD be thanked, whate’er comes after, I have lived and 
 toiled with men. —Rudyard Kipling. 
 
 T ) know, what you prefer, instead of humbly saying 
 Amen, to what the world tells you you ought to 
 prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. 
 
 Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 
 f 
 
 F what shall a man be proud if he is not proud of his 
 friends? — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 o 
 
 N 
 
 D 
 
 O mediaeval mystery, no crowned. 
 
 Dim figure, halo ringed, uncanny bright; 
 
 A modern saint: a man who treads earth’s ground, 
 And ministers to men with all his might! 
 
 — Richard Burton . 
 
 O not worry; eat three square meals a day; say your 
 prayers; be courteous to your creditors; keep your 
 digestion good; exercise; go slow, and easy. Maybe 
 there are other things that your special case requires 
 to make you happy, but, my friend, these I reckon will 
 give you a good lift. — Abraham I’ncoln. 
 
 [ 17] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 SUN PHILOSOPHY 
 QMILE! 
 
 This advice is worth a pile — 
 
 Beats ter blazes strikin' ile; 
 
 When yer blood begins ter bile, 
 
 Jes' you smile! 
 
 Smile ! 
 
 Let the other feller cuss; 
 
 'Taint your biz ter make a fuss; 
 
 You can clear away the muss 
 With a smile. 
 
 Smile ! 
 
 When things go tarnation wrong 
 Buck your courage with a song; 
 
 Luck can’t lose you very long 
 Ef you smile. 
 
 Smile l 
 
 'Til the bluey heavens shine thro’. 
 
 An' ole Sol winks down at you; 
 
 Thinks you are a sunbeam too, 
 
 'Cause you smile. 
 
 — Florence M. Pierce . 
 
 I 'LL not confer with sorrow 
 Till to-morrow; 
 
 But joy shall have her way 
 This very day. 
 
 [18] 
 
 — T. B. Aldrich . 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 THE WORD 
 
 T O-DAY, whatever may annoy, 
 
 The word for me is Joy, just simple joy: 
 
 The joy of life; 
 
 The joy of children and of wife; 
 
 The joy of bright, blue skies; 
 
 The joy of rain; the glad surprise 
 Of twinkling stars that shine at night; 
 
 The joy of winged things upon their flight; 
 
 The joy of noon-day, and the tried 
 True joyousness of eventide; 
 
 The joy of labor, and of mirth; 
 
 The joy of air, and sea, and earth — 
 
 The countless joys that ever flow from Him 
 Whose vast beneficence doth dim 
 The lustrous light of day, 
 
 And lavish gifts divine upon our way. 
 
 Whate’er there be of Sorrow 
 I’ll put off till To-morrow, 
 
 And when To-morrow comes, why then 
 'Twill be To-day and Joy again! 
 
 — John Kendrick Bangs • 
 
 W HY thus longing, thus forever sighing, 
 
 For the far off, unattained and dim? 
 While the beautiful, all around thee lying, 
 Offers its low, perpetual hymn. 
 
 — Harriet Winslow . 
 
 1 19 1 
 
m THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER Qm 
 
 S O many gods, so many creeds, 
 
 So many paths that wind and wind; 
 
 When just the art of being kind 
 Is all the sad world needs. 
 
 — Ella Wheeler Wilcox . 
 
 $ 
 
 F ORGET thyself and all thy woes, 
 
 Put out each feverish light; 
 
 The stars are watching overhead; 
 
 Sleep sweet. Goodnight! Goodnight! 
 
 £ 
 
 D ON’T do anything, till you do it; and when you’ve done 
 it, stop doing it. — William Gillette . 
 
 # 
 
 I WISH, I can, I will — these are the three trumpet notes 
 to victory. 
 
 $ 
 
 T O be honest, to be kind — to earn a little and to spend a 
 little less, to make upon the whole a family happier 
 for his presence; to renounce when that shall be neces- 
 sary and not to be embittered; to keep a few friends, 
 but these without capitulation — above all, on the same 
 grim conditions, to keep friends with himself — here is 
 a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy. 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 [ 20 ] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 D O NOT hurry. 
 
 Do not worry, 
 
 As this world you travel through, 
 
 No regretting, 
 
 Fuming, fretting, 
 
 Ever can advantage you. 
 
 Be content with what you've done; 
 
 What on earth you leave undone, 
 
 There are plenty left to do. 
 
 — P. M. Wyline . 
 
 ? 
 
 T HERE is an idea abroad among moral people that they 
 should make their neighbors good. One person I have 
 to make good: myself. But my duty to my neighbor is 
 much more nearly expressed by saying that I have to 
 make him happy — if I may. 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 1 AM happy in having learned to distinguish between 
 ownership and possession. Books, pictures, and all the 
 beauty of the world belong to those who love and under- 
 stand them — not usually to those who possess them 
 All of these things that I am entitled to, I have — I own 
 them by divine right. So, I care not a bit who possesses 
 them. I used to care very much and consequently was 
 very unhappy. — James Howard Kehler . 
 
 [ 21 ] 
 
mo THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER IM 
 
 NOW 
 
 I F YOU have hard work to do, 
 
 Do it now. 
 
 To-day the skies are clear and blue, 
 To-morrow clouds may come in view, 
 Yesterday is not for you; 
 
 Do it now. 
 
 If you have a song to sing, 
 
 Sing it now. 
 
 Let the tones of gladness ring 
 Clear as song of bird in spring. 
 
 Let every day some music bring; 
 
 Sing it now. 
 
 If you have kind words to say. 
 
 Say them now. 
 
 To -morrow may not come your way. 
 Do a kindness while you may; 
 
 Loved ones will not always stay; 
 
 Say them now. 
 
 If you have a smile to show, 
 
 Show it now. 
 
 Make hearts happy, roses grow. 
 
 Let the friends around you know 
 The love you have before they go; 
 Show it now. 
 
 D 
 
 AYS change so many things — yes, hours — 
 We see so differently in suns and showers. 
 
 — George K tingle. 
 
 [«] 
 
K3 THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 T HE common problem, yours, mine, everyone's 
 Is — not to fancy what were fair in life 
 Provided it could be; but finding first 
 What may be, then find how to make it fair 
 Up to our means, a very different thing! 
 
 — Robert Browning . 
 
 BE STRONG 
 
 B E strong! 
 
 W^e are not here to play, to dream to drift; 
 
 We have hard work to do, and loads to lift; 
 
 Shun not the struggle — face it; ’tis God’s gift. 
 
 Be strong! 
 
 Say not, “The days are evil. Who’s to blame?” 
 
 And fold the hands and acquiesce — oh shame! 
 
 Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God’s name. 
 
 Be strong! 
 
 It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong, 
 
 How hard the battle goes, the day how long; 
 
 Faint not — fight on! To-morrow comes the song. 
 
 — Maltbie Davenport Babcock . 
 
 * 
 
 HERE is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of 
 being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous 
 benefits upon the world, which remain unknown even 
 to ourselves, or when they are disclosed, surprise 
 nobody so much as the benefactor. 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 [23] 
 
SKaaTHE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER BO® 
 
 WHEN THE BIRDS GO NORTH AGAIN 
 
 (f 
 
 , EVERY year hath its winter. 
 And every year hath its rain — 
 But a day is always coming 
 
 When the birds go north again. 
 
 When new leaves swell in the forest, 
 
 And grass springs green on the plain. 
 
 And the alders’ veins turn crimson — 
 
 And the birds go north again. 
 
 Oh, every heart hath its sorrow, 
 
 And every heart hath its pain — 
 
 But a day is always coming 
 
 When the birds go north again. 
 
 ’Tis the sweetest thing to remember 
 If courage be on the wane, 
 
 When the cold, dark days are over — 
 
 Why, the birds go north again. 
 
 — Ella Higginson . 
 
 * 
 
 T ) BE what we are, and to become what we are capable 
 of becoming, is the only end of life. 
 
 - — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 T?; 
 
 BE polite is to do and say 
 The kindest things in the kindest way. 
 
 — Sophia Bronson Titterington. 
 
 [24] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 DON’T GIT SORRY FER YERSELF 
 
 D ON’T you go and git sorry fer yerself. That’s one 
 thing I can’t stand in nobody. There’s always lots 
 of other folks you kin be sorry fer ’sted of yerself. 
 Ain’t you proud you ain’t got a hairlip? Why, that 
 one thought is enough to keep me from ever gittin’ sorry 
 fer myself. — Mrs. Wiggs. 
 
 * 
 
 1 WOULD not give a farthing for a man’s religion if his 
 dog and cat are not the better for it. 
 
 — Rowland Hill . 
 
 £ 
 
 G ENTLENESS and cheerfulness, these come before all 
 morality; they are the perfect duties. If your morals 
 make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I 
 do not say “give them up,” for they may be all you 
 have; but conceal them like a vice, lest they should 
 spoil the lives of better and simpler people. 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 £ 
 
 B UT in the mud and scum of things 
 
 There always, always, something sings. 
 
 — Ralph Waldo Emerson . 
 
 * 
 
 T HERE has not been a single day since the world began 
 when the sun was not shining. The trouble has been 
 with our vision. 
 
WK3* THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 THE WORLD AS IT IS 
 
 I T’S a gay old world when you’re gay, 
 
 And a glad old world when you’re glad, 
 But whether you play 
 Or go toiling away. 
 
 It’s a sad old world when you’re sad. 
 
 It’s a grand old world if you’re great 
 And a mean old world if you’re small; 
 
 It’s a world full of hate 
 For the foolish who prate 
 Of the uselessness of it all. 
 
 It’s a beautiful world to see. 
 
 Or it’s dismal in every zone; 
 
 The thing it must be 
 In your gloom or your glee 
 Depends on yourself alone. 
 
 — S. E . Kiser . 
 
 MY PHILOSOPHY 
 
 1 ALLUS argy that a man 
 
 Who does about the best he can. 
 
 Is plenty good enough to suit 
 This lower mundane institute — 
 
 No matter ef his daily walk 
 Is subject fer his neighbor’s talk. 
 
 And critic-minds of ev’ry whim 
 Jest all git up and go for him! 
 
 [26] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 I TS natchural enough, I guess. 
 
 When some gits more and some gits less. 
 
 For them-uns on the slimmest side 
 To claim it ain’t a fair divide; 
 
 And I’ve knowed some to lay and wait. 
 
 And git up soon, and set up late. 
 
 To ketch some feller they could hate 
 Fer goin’ at a faster gait. 
 
 The signs is bad when folks commence 
 A findin’ fault with Providence, 
 
 And balkin’ ’cause the earth don’t shake 
 At every prancin’ step they take. 
 
 No man is great till he can see 
 How less than little he would be 
 Ef stripped to self, and stark and bare 
 He hung his sign out anywhere. 
 
 My doctern is to lay aside 
 Contentions, and be satisfied: 
 
 Jest do your best, and praise er blame 
 That follers that, counts jest the same. 
 
 I’ve alius noticed grate success 
 Is mixed with troubles, more er less, 
 
 And it’s the man who does the best 
 That gits more kicks than all the rest. 
 
 — James Whitcomb Riley 
 
 # 
 
 I OOKS like ever’thing in the world comes right if we jes* 
 md wait long enough. — Mrs. Wiggs • 
 
 [27i 
 
MtOSTHE BOOK OF GOOD CHEERK3BB 
 
 PRAYER AT MORNING 
 
 T HE day returns and brings us the petty round of irri- 
 tating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, 
 help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces, 
 let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go 
 blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our 
 resting beds weary and content and undishonored, 
 and grant us in the end the gift of sleep. 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 % 
 
 PRAYER AT EVENING 
 
 T HE service of the day is over, and the hour come to 
 rest. We resign into Thy hands our sleeping bodies, 
 our cold hearths and open doors. Give us to awake 
 with smiles, give us to labor smiling. As the sun 
 returns in the east, so let our patience be renewed 
 with dawn; as the sun lightens the world, so let our 
 loving-kindness make bright this house of our habi- 
 tations. — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 £ 
 
 F OUR things a man must learn to do 
 If he would make his record true: 
 
 To think without confusion clearly; 
 
 To love his fellow-men sincerely; 
 
 To act from honest motives purely; 
 
 To trust in God and heaven securely. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke . 
 
 [28] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 C HEERINESS is a thing to be more profoundly grateful 
 for than all that genius ever inspired or talent ever 
 accomplished. Next best to natural, spontaneous 
 cheeriness, is deliberate, intended and persistent 
 cheeriness, which we can create, can cultivate and can 
 so foster and cherish that after a few years the world 
 will never suspect that it was not an heredity gift. 
 
 — Helen Hunt Jackson . 
 
 9 
 
 J OY does not happen. It is the inevitable result of certain 
 lines followed and laws obeyed and so a matter of char- 
 acter. — Maltbie D. Babcock . 
 
 1 BELIEVE in giftin' as much good outen life as you kin — 
 not that I ever set out to look fer happiness; seems like 
 the folks that does, never finds it. I jes' do the best I 
 kin where the good Lord put me at, an’ it looks like 
 I got a happy feelin' in me 'most all the time. 
 
 — Mrs. Wiggs. 
 
 9 
 
 T HAT happy state of mind, so rarely possessed, in which 
 we can say, “I have enough," is the highest attainment 
 of philosophy. Happiness consists, not in possessing 
 much, but in being content with what we possess. He 
 who wants little always has enough. 
 
 — Zimmerman . 
 
 [29] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 JUST BE GLAD 
 
 O H, HEART of mine, we shouldn’t 
 Worry so! 
 
 What we’ve missed of calm we couldn’t 
 Have, you know! 
 
 What we’ve met of stormy pain, 
 
 And of sorrow’s driving rain, 
 
 We can better meet again 
 If it blow. 
 
 For we know, not every morrow 
 Can be sad; 
 
 So forgetting all the sorrow 
 We have had. 
 
 Let us fold away our fears. 
 
 And put by our foolish tears, 
 
 And through all the coming years 
 
 Just be glad. _j ames Whitcomb Riley. 
 
 # 
 
 ENIUS is talent set on fire by courage. Fidelity is 
 simply daring to be true in small things as well as 
 great. Courage is the standing army of the soul 
 which keeps it from conquest, pillage and slavery. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke. 
 
 ET into the habit of looking for the silver lining of the 
 cloud, and when you have found it, continue to look 
 at it rather than at the leaden gray in the middle. It 
 will help you over many hated places. 
 
 —A. A. W. 
 
 [30] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 FOUR-LEAF CLOVERS 
 
 I KNOW a place where the sun is like gold 
 
 And the cherry blooms burst forth with snow; 
 
 And down underneath is the loveliest nook, 
 
 Where the four-leaved clovers grow. 
 
 One leaf is for Hope, and one is for Faith, 
 
 And one is for Love, you know, 
 
 And God put another one in for Luck, — 
 
 If you search you will find where they grow. 
 
 But you must have Hope, and you must have Faith, 
 You must love and be strong, and so 
 If you work, if you wait, you will find the place, 
 Where the four-leaf clovers grow. Higginson , 
 
 T HERE is only one way to be happy and that is to make 
 somebody else so. — Sidney Smith . 
 
 I T IS the great boon of such characters as Mr. Lincoln’s 
 that they re-unite what God has joined together and 
 man has put asunder. In him was vindicated the great- 
 ness of real goodness, and the goodness of real greatness. 
 
 — Philips Brooks. 
 
 G ET out and do something — work, sweat, hike, hump 
 yourself — starve if need be — but dig on and deliver. 
 Then talk if you want to, but the chances are you 
 won’t feel so much like it. _j ames Howard Kehku 
 
 [ 3 1 ] 
 
liSSTHE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 G rumble? No, what’s the good? 
 
 If it availed, I would; 
 
 But it doesn’t a bit. 
 
 Not it. 
 
 Laugh? Yes, why not? 
 
 ’Tis better than crying, a lot; 
 
 We were made to be glad, 
 
 Not sad. 
 
 Sing? Why, yes to be sure; 
 
 We shall better endure 
 If the heart’s full of song 
 All day long. 
 
 9 
 
 I N MEN whom men condemn as ill 
 I find so much of goodness still; 
 
 In men whom men pronounce divine 
 I find so much of sin and blot, 
 
 I hesitate to draw a line 
 
 Between the two, where God has not. 
 
 9 
 
 1 AM sure it is a great mistake always to know enough to 
 go in when it rains. One may keep snug and dry by 
 such knowledge, but one misses a world of loveliness. 
 
 — Adeline Knapp . 
 
 T HE block of granite which was an obstacle in the path- 
 way of the weak, becomes a stepping stone in the path- 
 way of the strong. — Thomas Carlyle . 
 
 [ 32 ] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 S TRAIGHT from the Mighty Bow this truth is driven: 
 They fail, and they alone, who have not striven. 
 
 — Clarence Ur my, 
 
 * 
 
 T O BELIEVE in the heroic makes heroes. 
 
 — I) Israeli. 
 
 $ 
 
 IFE without Industry is guilt, 
 brutality. 
 
 $ 
 
 Industry without Art is 
 — John Ruskin. 
 
 T HE highest compact we can make with our fellow is: 
 Let there be truth between us two forevermore. 
 
 — Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 F OR a man to have an ideal in this world, for a man to 
 know what an ideal is, this also is to have lived. 
 
 — Gerald Stanley Lee . 
 
 $ 
 
 p 
 
 RAISE loudly; blame softly. 
 
 — Catherine II. 
 
 * 
 
 T his is the best day the world has ever seen. To- 
 morrow will be better. — R. A. Campbell. 
 
 T HE ornaments of a house are the friends that frequent 
 it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 [33] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 T HERE is ever a song somewhere, my dear. 
 
 Be the skies above or dark or fair, 
 
 There is ever a song that our hearts may hear — 
 There is ever a song somewhere, my dear — 
 
 There is ever a song somewhere! 
 
 — James Whitcomb Riley . 
 
 HE reward is in keeping the commandments, not for 
 keeping them. — Lydia Marie Child . 
 
 W HEN you play, play hard; when you work, don’t 
 play at all. — Theodore Roosevelt . 
 
 A WOMAN who creates and sustains a home, and under 
 whose hands children grow up to be strong and pure 
 men and women, is a creator second only to God. 
 
 — Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 T HIS is the beginning of all gospels, that the kingdom of 
 Heaven is at hand just where we are. 
 
 * 
 
 HETHER the world is blue or rosy depends upon the 
 kind of spectacles we wear. It’s our glasses, not the 
 world, that needs attention. 
 
 N 
 
 OAH was six hundred years old before he knew how to 
 build an ark — don’t lose your grip. 
 
 — Elbert Hubbard . 
 
 [ 34 ] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 C ONCERN yourself but with To-day; 
 
 Woo it, and teach it to obey 
 
 Your will and wish. Since time began 
 
 To-day has been the friend of man, 
 
 But in his blindness and his sorrow 
 He looks to Yesterday and To-morrow. 
 
 9 
 
 H APPINESS is the only good. The place to be happy 
 is here. The time to be happy is now. The way 
 to be happy is to help make others so. 
 
 — Robert G. Ingersoll. 
 
 9 
 
 M ANY people are so afraid to die that they have never 
 begun to live. But courage emancipates us and gives 
 us to ourselves, that we may give ourselves freely 
 and without fear to god. -Henry van Dyke. 
 
 E VERY mason in the quarry, every builder on the shore, 
 Every chopper in the palm grove, every raftsman at 
 the oar — 
 
 Hewing wood and drawing water, splitting stones and 
 cleaving sod — 
 
 All the dusty ranks of labor, in the regiments of God, 
 March together toward His triumph, do the task His 
 hands prepare; 
 
 Honest toil is holy service; faithful work is praise and 
 prayer. — Henry van Dyke, 
 
 [35] 
 
HE S THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER sg 
 
 w 
 
 HEN things first got to goin’ wrong with me, I says: 
 “O Lord, whatever comes, keep me from gittin* 
 sour!” Since then Fve made it a practice to put all 
 my worries down in the bottom of my heart, then set 
 on the lid an’ smile. — Mrs. Wiggs. 
 
 i 
 
 HEARD a raven croak, but I persuaded myself it was 
 the song of the nightingale. I smelled the smell of the 
 mould, but thought of the violets it nourished. 
 
 — Tom Hood. 
 
 OU have not fulfilled every duty unless you have fulfilled 
 that of being pleasant. — Charles Buxton. 
 
 N 
 
 H 
 
 HE grand essentials of happiness are something to do, 
 something to love, and something to hope for. 
 
 — Chalmers. 
 
 OTHING is so contagious as enthusiasm. It is the 
 real allegory of the tale of Orpheus. It moves stones, 
 it charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius of sin- 
 cerity and truth accomplishes no victories without it. 
 
 — Bulwer . 
 
 E WHO goes down into the battle of life giving a smile 
 for every frown, a cheery word for every cross one, and 
 lending a helping hand to the unfortunate is, after all, 
 the best of missionaries. 
 
 [ 36 ] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 PASS IT ON 
 
 H 
 
 AVE you had a kindness shown? 
 
 Pass it on! 
 
 ’Twas not given to you alone! 
 
 Pass it on! 
 
 Let it travel down the years, 
 
 Let it wipe another's tears, 
 
 Till in Heaven the deed appears; 
 
 Pass it on! — Henry Burton . 
 
 w 
 
 HAT we see depends mainly on what we look for. 
 
 — John Lubbock . 
 
 9r 
 
 i | THAT helped you over the great obstacles of life?” 
 was asked a successful man. ‘‘The other obstacles,” 
 he replied. 
 
 * 
 
 T HEY can, because they believe they can. 
 
 — Virgil . 
 
 * 
 
 T O love and win is the best thing; 
 
 To love and lose the next best. 
 
 — W. M. Thackeray . 
 
 % 
 
 S OME defeats are only instalments of victory. 
 
 — Jacob A . Riis. 
 
 [37] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 1 WILL this day try to live a simple, sincere and serene 
 life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, 
 anxiety, discouragement, impurity and self-seeking; cul- 
 tivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity and the 
 habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, 
 carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed ser- 
 vice, fidelity to every trust and childlike trust in God. 
 
 — John H. Vincent . 
 
 B ELIEVE in the better side of men. It is optimism that 
 really saves people. — Ian Maclaren . 
 
 « 
 
 i 
 
 SHALL pass through this world but once. Any good 
 thing that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any 
 human being, let me do it now — for I shall not pass this 
 way again. 
 
 T O ENTER Heaven a man must take it with him. 
 
 — Henry Drummond . 
 
 9 
 
 HE Kingdom of Heaven is not a place, but a state of 
 mind. — John Burroughs . 
 
 9 
 
 I DO the best I know. The very best I can; and I mean to 
 keep right on doing so until the end. If the end brings 
 me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to 
 anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels 
 swearing I was right would make no difference. 
 
 — Abraham Lincoln . 
 
 [ 38 ] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 A PRAYER 
 
 N OT more of light, I ask, O God, 
 
 But eyes to see what is; 
 
 Not sweeter songs, but power to hear 
 The present melodies. 
 
 Not greater strength, but how to use 
 The power that I possess; 
 
 Not more of love, but skill to turn 
 A frown to a caress. 
 
 Not mote of joy, but power to feel 
 Its kindling presence near; 
 
 To give to others all I have 
 Of courage and of cheer. 
 
 Give me all fears to dominate, 
 
 All holy joys to know; 
 
 To be the friend I wish to be, 
 
 To speak the truth I know. 
 
 — Florence Holbrook. 
 
 * 
 
 A NY one can carry his burden, however heavy, till 
 nightfall. Any one can do his work, however hard, 
 for one day. Any one can live sweetly, lovingly, 
 purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all that 
 life really means. 
 
 * 
 
 T HE world is looking for the man who can do something, 
 not for the man who can “explain” why he didn't do it. 
 
 [39] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEERIO® 
 
 T RUE bravery is shown by performing without witnesses 
 what one might be capable of doing before all the 
 world. — La Rochefoucauld. 
 
 T HE best preacher is the heart; the best teacher is time; 
 the best book is the world; the best friend is God. 
 
 — The Talmud. 
 
 W 
 
 IS not the weight of jewel or plate, 
 
 Or the fondle of silk or fur; 
 
 Tis the spirit in which the gift is rich, 
 
 As the gifts of the wise ones were; 
 
 And we are not told whose gift was gold, 
 
 Or whose was the gift of myrrh. 
 
 # 
 
 T HE Indian says that when a man kills a foe the strength 
 of the slain enemy passes into the victor’s arm. In the 
 weird fancy lies the truth. Each defeat leaves us 
 weaker for the next battle, but each conquest makes us 
 stronger. Nothing makes a prison to a human life, 
 but a defeated, broken spirit. The bird in its cage 
 that sings all the while is not a captive. 
 
 —J. R. Miller. 
 
 B ELIEVE in yourself, believe in humanity, believe in the 
 success of your undertakings. Fear nothing and no 
 one. Love your work. Work, hope, trust. Keep in 
 touch with to-day. Teach yourself to be practical and 
 up-to-date and sensible. You cannot fail! 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 08 
 
 G ENIUS seems to be allied to immortal youth. Goethe 
 at eighty-four had the same deep interest in life that 
 he felt at thirty or forty; and Gladstone at eighty-six 
 was one of the most eager and aspiring men of his time. 
 
 — Hamilton Wright Mabie . 
 
 9 
 
 A CERTAIN amount of opposition is a great help to a 
 man; kites rise against and not with the wind. 
 
 * 
 
 B LESSED is he who has found his work; let him ask no 
 other blessedness. He has a work, a life purpose; he 
 has found it, and will follow it! — Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 9 
 
 K ING HASSAN, well-beloved, was wont to say, 
 When aught went wrong, or any labor failed, 
 “To-morrow, friends, will be another day!” 
 
 And in that faith he slept, and so prevailed. 
 
 £ 
 
 H! LET us fill our hearts up with the glory of the day, 
 And banish ev’ry doubt and care and sorrow far away! 
 For the world is full of roses, and the roses full of dew, 
 And the dew is full of heavenly love that drips for me 
 and you. — James Whitcomb Riley . 
 
 9 
 
 M AKE the most of yourself, for that is all there is of 
 you. — Ralph Waldo Emerson . 
 
 [41] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEERi M 
 
 COMPENSATION 
 
 T HE universe pays every man in his own coin; if you 
 smile, it smiles upon you in return; if you frown, you 
 will be frowned at; if you sing, you will be invited into 
 gay company; if you think, you will be entertained by 
 thinkers; and if you love the world and earnestly seek 
 for the good that is therein, you will be surrounded by 
 loving friends, and nature will pour into your lap the 
 treasures of the earth. Censure, criticise and hate, and 
 you will be censured, criticised and hated by your fel- 
 low men. Every seed brings forth after its kind. 
 Mistrust begets mistrust, and confidence begets con- 
 fidence, kindness begets kindness, love begets love. 
 Resist and you will be resisted. To meet the aggressive 
 assault every entity rises up rigid and impenetrable — 
 while yonder mountain of granite melts and floats 
 away on the bosom of the river of love. 
 
 — N. W. Zimmerman . 
 
 L IVING will teach you how to live, better than preacher or 
 book. — Goethe . 
 
 9 
 
 T HE unhappy are always wrong; wrong in being so, 
 wrong in saying so, wrong in needing help of others. 
 
 9 
 
 W RITE on your hearts that every day is the best day 
 of the year. — Ralph Waldo Emerson . 
 
 [ 4^1 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 N 
 
 OT one holy day, but seven. 
 
 Worshipping not at the call of a bell, 
 
 But at the call of my soul. 
 
 Singing not at the baton’s sway, 
 
 But to the rhythm in my heart. 
 
 Loving because I must. 
 
 Giving because I cannot keep. 
 
 Doing for the joy of it. 
 
 — Muriel Strode . 
 
 F I can stop one heart from breaking, 
 
 I shall not live in vain. 
 
 If I can ease one life the aching, 
 
 Or cool one pain, 
 
 Or help one fainting Robin 
 Into his nest again 
 I shall not live in vain. 
 
 — Emily Dickinson. 
 
 HEERFULNESS and content are great beautifiers and 
 are famous preservers of youthful looks. 
 
 — Charles Dickens. 
 
 HATEVER the weather may be,” says he, 
 “Whatever the weather may be, 
 
 It’s the songs ye sing, an’ the smiles ye wear, 
 That’s a-makin’ the sun shine everywhere.” 
 
 — James Whitcomb Riley. 
 
 E WHO has conferred a kindness should be silent; he 
 who has received one should speak of it. 
 
 [ 43 ] 
 
 — Seneca . 
 
m3 i THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 UP, MY HEART, AND SING 
 
 T HE dark, dark night is gone, 
 
 The lark is on the wing, 
 
 From bleak and barren fields he soars, 
 
 Eternal hope to sing. 
 
 And shall I be less brave 
 Than yon sweet lyric thing? 
 
 From deeps of failure and despair. 
 
 Up, up my heart, and sing! 
 
 The dark, dark year is gone: 
 
 The red blood of the spring 
 Will quicken Nature’s pulses soon, 
 
 So up, my heart, and sing! 
 
 — Ella Higginson . 
 
 $ 
 
 T HIS is the gospel of labor, 
 
 Ring it, ye bells of the kirk, 
 
 The Lord of Love came down from above, 
 
 To live with the men who work. 
 
 This is the rose He planted, 
 
 Here in the thorn-cursed soil; 
 
 Heaven is blessed with perfect rest, 
 
 But the blessing of earth is toil. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke . 
 
 I DO not know of any way so sure of making others happy 
 as being so one’s self. — Sir Arthur Helps . 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 1 ET me but do my work day to day 
 
 In field or forest, at this desk or loom, 
 
 In roaring market place or tranquil room; 
 
 Let me but find it in my heart to say. 
 
 When vagrant wishes beckon me astray, 
 
 “This is my work; my blessing, not my doom. 
 Of all who live, I am the one by whom 
 This work can best be done in the right way.” 
 
 Then shall I see it not too great, nor small 
 To suit my spirit and to prove my powers; 
 
 Then shall I, cheerful, greet the laboring hours. 
 And cheerful turn, when the long shadows fall 
 At eventide, to play and love and rest 
 Because I know for me my work is best. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke . 
 
 % 
 
 M AKE the best of everything; 
 
 Think the best of everybody; 
 
 Hope the best for yourself. 
 
 — George Stephenson . 
 
 % 
 
 O BE serene amid a losing fight, 
 
 To meet with equal courage dark or light. 
 
 To hate all sham, and with persistent might 
 To do brave deeds as in a master’s sight, — 
 This is to learn life’s lesson, reach the height. 
 
 — Charles Allen Dausson . 
 
 [ 45 ] 
 
W THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 I F you strike a thorn or rose. 
 
 Keep a-goin’. 
 
 If it hails or if it snows, 
 
 Keep-agoin’. 
 
 ’Tain’t no use to sit and whine 
 When the fish ain’t on your line; 
 
 Bait your hook and keep on tryin’ — 
 
 Keep a-goin’. 
 
 When the weather kills your crop, 
 
 Keep a-goin’. 
 
 When you tumble from the top, 
 
 Keep a-goin’. 
 
 S’pose you’re out o’ every dime! 
 
 Gettin’ broke ain’t any crime; 
 
 Tell the world you’re feeling prime — 
 
 Keep a-goin’. 
 
 When it looks like all is up, 
 
 Keep a-goin’. 
 
 Drain the sweetness from the cup, 
 
 Keep a-goin’. 
 
 See the wild bird on the wing, 
 
 Hear the bells that sweetly ring. 
 
 When you feel like sighin’, sing. 
 
 Keep a-goin’. — Frank L. Stanton . 
 
 * 
 
 I T IS no use to grumble and complain; 
 
 It’s just as cheap and easy to rejoice, 
 
 When God sorts out the weather and sends rain — 
 Why, rain’s my choice. _j ames Whitcomb Riley. 
 
 [46] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 T AKE Joy home, 
 
 And make a place in thy great heart for her; 
 
 Then will she come, and oft will sing to thee. 
 
 When thou art working in the furrows; aye, 
 
 Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn. 
 
 It is a comely fashion to be glad — 
 
 Joy is the grace we say to God. 
 
 — Jean Inge low 
 
 HE little cares that fretted me, 
 
 I lost them yesterday, 
 
 Among the fields above the sea, 
 
 Among the winds at play; 
 
 Among the lowing of the herds, 
 
 The rustling of the trees, 
 
 Among the singing of the birds, 
 
 The humming of the bees. 
 
 The foolish fears of what may happen, 
 
 I cast them all away, 
 
 Among the clover-scented grass, 
 
 Among the new-mown hay, 
 
 Among the husking of the corn 
 Where drowsy poppies nod, 
 
 Where ill thoughts die and good are born, 
 
 Out in the fields with God. 
 
 — E. B. Browning. 
 
 D O not forget that even as “to work is to worship,” so 
 to be cheery is to worship also; and to be happy is 
 the first step to being pious. 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 [ 47 ] 
 
^£23 THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER BS^I 
 
 SHAKE! 
 
 I T’S great to say “Good Morning/’ 
 
 It’s fine to say “Hello/’ 
 
 But better still to grasp the hand 
 Of a loyal friend you know. 
 
 A look may be forgotten, 
 
 A word misunderstood, 
 
 But the touch of the human hand 
 Is the pledge of brotherhood. 
 
 —E. O. G. 
 
 W HAT do we live for if not to make the world less 
 difficult for each other? — George Eliot . 
 
 * 
 
 T O-MORROW you have no business with. You steal 
 if you touch to-morrow. It is God’s. Every day has 
 in it enough to keep any man occupied without con- 
 cerning himself with the things beyond. 
 
 — Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 9 
 
 T AKE what is; trust what may be; that’s life’s true 
 lesson. — Robert Browning. 
 
 # 
 
 I F we were charged so much a head for sunsets, or if God 
 sent round a drum before the hawthornes come into 
 flower, what a work we should make about their beauty! 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 [48] 
 
WZ3 THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER OIS 
 
 E TEN to the Exhortation of the Dawn. 
 
 Look to the Day, 
 
 For it is Life, the very life of Life. 
 
 In its brief course lie all the Verities 
 And Realities of your Existence, 
 
 The bliss of Truth, the glory of Action, 
 
 The splendor of Beauty, 
 
 For Yesterday is but a dream 
 And To-morrow is only a vision, 
 
 But To-day, 
 
 Well lived, makes every Yesterday 
 A dream of happiness 
 And every To-morrow a vision of Hope. 
 
 Look well, therefore, to the Day. 
 
 Such is the Salutation of the Dawn. 
 
 — From the Sanskrit . 
 
 % 
 
 M AKE one person happy each day and in forty years 
 you have made 14,600 human beings happy for a 
 little time at least. 
 
 $ 
 
 I F I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a 
 great way. — James Freeman Clarke . 
 
 * 
 
 SIRE joy and thank God 
 need be, for other’s sake. 
 
 for it. Renounce it, 
 That’s joy beyond joy. 
 — Robert Browning . 
 
 if 
 
 [ 49 1 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER S 
 
 D EAR Lord, kind Lord, 
 
 Gracious Lord! I pray 
 Thou wilt look on all I love 
 Tenderly to-day. 
 
 Weed their hearts of weariness; 
 
 Scatter every care, 
 
 Down a wake of angel wings 
 Winnowing the air. 
 
 Bring unto the sorrowing 
 All release from pain; 
 
 Let the lips of laughter 
 Overflow again ! 
 
 And with all the needy, 
 
 Oh! divide, I pray. 
 
 This vast treasure of content 
 That is mine to-day. 
 
 — James Whitcomb Riley. 
 
 $ 
 
 G OODNESS does not more certainly make men happy, 
 than happiness makes them good. 
 
 — Walter Savage Landor. 
 
 ~Sr 
 
 I N months of sun so live that in months of rain thou shalt 
 still be happy. — From the “ Mahabharata .” 
 
 I F I were you I would not worry. Just make up your 
 mind to do better when you get another chance, and be 
 content with that. — Beatrice Harraden . 
 
ffitaSHHE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER OSg 
 
 H OWEVER the battle is ended, 
 
 Though proudly the victor comes 
 With fluttering flags and prancing nags 
 And echoing roll of drums, 
 
 Still Truth proclaims this motto 
 In letters of living light — 
 
 No question is ever settled 
 Until it is settled right. 
 
 Let those who have failed take courage, 
 
 Though the enemy seemed to have won, 
 Though his rank be strong, if he be in the wrong. 
 The battle is not yet done. 
 
 For sure as the morning follows 
 The darkest hour of night, 
 
 No question is ever settled 
 Until it is settled right. 
 
 O man bowed down with labor, 
 
 O woman young, yet old; 
 
 O heart oppressed in the toiler's breast, 
 
 , And crushed by the power of gold, 
 
 Keep on with your weary battle 
 Against triumphant night; 
 
 No question is ever settled 
 Until it is settled right. 
 
 — Ella Wheeler Wilcox . 
 
 $ 
 
 E VERY man is an optimist who sees deep enough. 
 
 — Edwin Atkinson . 
 
 [?i] 
 
 U. Of ILL. UB 
 
®2$ THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER O 
 
 S MILE a little, 
 
 Help a little. 
 
 Push a little. 
 
 The world needs you. 
 
 Work a little. 
 
 Wait a little, 
 
 Hope a little, 
 
 And don’t get blue. 
 
 — E. O. G. 
 
 T HEY might not need me — yet they might, 
 
 I’ll let my heart be just in sight. 
 
 A smile so small as mine might be 
 Precisely their necessity. 
 
 — Emily Dickinson . 
 
 £ 
 
 F IGHT when you are down; die hard — determine at 
 least to do — and you won’t die at all. 
 
 — James H. West . 
 
 * 
 
 N O one has any more right to go about unhappy than he 
 has to go about ill-bred. He owes it to himself, to 
 his friends, to society, and to the community in general, 
 to live up to his best spiritual possibilities, not only 
 now and then, once or twice a year, or once in a 
 season, but every day and every hour. 
 
 — Lilian Whiting . 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 THE DEEPEST WORTH 
 
 T HESE are the things I prize 
 And hold of deepest worth: 
 
 Light of the sapphire skies, 
 
 Peace of the silent hills, 
 
 Shelter of forest, comfort of the grass, 
 
 Shadow of clouds that swiftly pass, 
 
 And after showers 
 The smell of flowers. 
 
 And of the good brown earth, — 
 
 And best of all, along the way, 
 
 Friendship and mirth. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke. 
 
 # 
 
 IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE 
 
 I T is good to be alive when the trees shine green. 
 
 And the steep red hills stand up against the sky; 
 
 Big sky, blue sky, with flying clouds between — 
 
 It is good to be alive and see the clouds drive by! 
 
 It is good to be alive when the strong winds blow. 
 
 The strong, sweet winds blowing straightly off* the sea; 
 Great sea, green sea, with swinging ebb and flow — 
 
 It is good to be alive and see the waves run by, 
 
 — Charlotte Perkins Stetson. 
 
 • 
 
 G OD has given us tongues that we may say something 
 pleasant to our fellow-men. — Heinrich Heine . 
 
 [53] 
 
ws^nm BOOK of good cheered 
 
 SUCCESS 
 
 H E HAS achieved success who has lived well, laughed 
 often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of 
 intelligent men, and the love of little children; who 
 has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has 
 left the world better than he found it, whether by an 
 improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; 
 who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty, 
 or failed to express it; who has always looked for the 
 best in others and given the best he had; whose life 
 was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction. 
 
 — Bessie A . Stanley . 
 
 £ 
 
 I T is an everlasting duty — the duty of being brave. 
 
 — Thomas Carlyle . 
 
 9 
 
 RESOLVE 
 
 T O keep my health! 
 
 To do my work! 
 
 To live! 
 
 To see to it I grow and gain and give! 
 
 Never to look behind me for an hour ! 
 
 To wait in weakness, and to walk in power; 
 
 But always fronting onward toward the light, 
 Always and always facing toward the right. 
 
 Robbed, starved, defeated, fallen, wide astray — 
 
 On, with what strength I have! 
 
 Back to the way! — Charlotte Perkins Stetson . 
 
 [ 54 ] 
 
Wg2$! THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER8G28S 
 
 KEEP A PULLIN’ 
 
 F ISH don’t bite just for the wishin’. 
 
 Keep a pullin’! 
 
 Change your bait and keep on fishin’; 
 
 Keep a pullin’! 
 
 Luck ain’t nailed to any spot; 
 
 Men you envy, like as not, 
 
 Envy you your job and lot! 
 
 Keep a pullin’! 
 
 9 
 
 ALWAYS WITH YOU 
 
 S AY not “Welcome” when I come. 
 
 Nor “Farewell” tell me when I go; 
 
 For I come not when I come. 
 
 And I go not when I go. 
 
 I am always, ever with you, 
 
 Always will be, so I pray. 
 
 I would never “Welcome” give you 
 And “Farewell” would never say. 
 
 # 
 
 E VERY man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which 
 to bury the faults of his friends. 
 
 — Henry Ward Beecher . 
 
 N EVER attempt to bear more than one kind of trouble 
 at once. Some people bear three kinds — all they have 
 had, all they have now, and all they expect to have. 
 
 — Edward Everett Hute. 
 
 [55] 
 
ms 1 THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEERiC^® 
 
 T HE world is wide 
 In time and tide. 
 
 And God is guide; 
 
 Then do not hurry. 
 
 That man is blest 
 Who does his best 
 And leaves the rest; 
 
 Then do not worry. 
 
 — C. F. Deems . 
 
 W 
 
 A RESOLVE 
 
 T O stand by one’s friend to the uttermost end, 
 
 And fight a fair fight with one’s foe; 
 
 Never to quit and never to twit. 
 
 And never to peddle one’s woe. 
 
 — George Brinton Chandler 
 
 % 
 
 O PPORTUNITIES correspond with almost mathe- 
 matical accuracy, to the ability to use them. 
 
 — Lilian Whiting. 
 
 T HERE is no defeat except from within. There is really 
 no insurmountable barrier save your own inherent 
 weakness of purpose. — Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 £ 
 
 ]\ TO man imparteth his joy to his friend, but he joyeth 
 the more; and no man imparteth his grief to his 
 iriend, but he grieveth the less. — Lord Bacon . 
 
 156 ] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 H APPINESS, at least, is not solitary; it joys to commu- 
 nicate; it loves others, for it depends on them for its 
 existence; it sanctions and encourages to all delights 
 that are not unkind in themselves. The very name 
 and appearance of a happy man breathe of good- 
 nature, and help the rest of us to live. 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 9 
 
 J ES go 'long good natured, 
 
 Dat’s de safes' way; 
 
 Sun goes on a-beamin' 
 
 An’ a-smilin' all de day. 
 
 Keeps de crops a-growin' 
 
 An’ de blossoms, an' de fruits, 
 
 Until de storm come 'round an’ try 
 To lif' ’em by the roots. 
 
 Sun goes on a-shinin' 
 
 Up above de cloud; 
 
 Wind it keeps a-blowin' 
 
 ' And de thunder rattles loud; 
 
 Sky gits blue an' peaceful, 
 
 Like no storm ain' never bin — 
 
 Sun he stays good-natured 
 An’ he alius boun' to win. 
 
 * 
 
 N AIM in life is the only fortune worth the finding; 
 and it is not to be found in foreign lands, but in the 
 heart itself. — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 A HAPPY THOUGHT 
 
 T HE world is so full of a number of things, 
 
 I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings. 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 N OT what you do, but how you do it, is the test of your 
 capacity. 
 
 iSr 
 
 T HIS world’s no blot for us, nor blank; it means intensely, 
 and means good. — Robert Browning. 
 
 & 
 
 W OULD you throw away a diamond because it pricked 
 you? One good friend is not to be weighed against 
 the jewels of all the earth. If there is coolness or 
 unkindness between us, let us come face to face and 
 have it out. Quick, before love grows cold! 
 
 — Robert Smith . 
 
 T HE years monotonous? The same old seasons, and 
 weathers, and aspects of nature? Never anything new 
 to admire or wonder at? The monotony is in our eye- 
 sight, which goes on seeing nothing but the common 
 and invariable things; simply because, from long 
 familiarity, these are the easy things to see. But these 
 are only the frame of the picture; the picture is never 
 twice alike. — Edward Rowland Sill. 
 
WS3$ THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER OSS 
 
 O NE makes one’s own happiness only by taking care of 
 the happiness of others. — Saint-Pierre. 
 
 * 
 
 SMILE 
 
 S 
 
 MILE! 
 
 The world is blue enough 
 Without your feeling blue. 
 
 Smile! 
 
 There's not half joy enough 
 Unless you're happy too. 
 
 Smile! 
 
 The sun is always shining, 
 And there's work to do. 
 
 Smile! 
 
 This world may not be Heaven, 
 But then it's Home to you. 
 
 * 
 
 — E. 0. G. 
 
 I N his own life, then, a man is not to expect happiness, 
 only to profit by it gladly when it shall arise. Somehow 
 or other, though he does not know what goodness is, he 
 must try to be good; somehow or other, though he cannot 
 tell what will do it, he must try to give happiness to 
 others. — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 9 
 
 A LAUGH is worth a hundred groans in any market. 
 
 — Charles Lamb . 
 
 [59] 
 
K2B THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER PQgg 
 
 Y ES, they whose feet upon good errands run 
 Are friends of God, with Michael of the sun; 
 
 Yes, each accomplished service of the day 
 Paves for the feet of God a lordlier way. 
 
 The souls that love and labor through all wrong, 
 They clasp His hand and make the circle strong: 
 They lay the deep foundations, stone by stone, 
 And build into Eternity God’s throne. 
 
 — Edwin Markham . 
 
 9 
 
 T IME is infinitely long, and each day is a vessel into 
 which a great deal may be poured — if one will actually 
 fill it up. — Goethe . 
 
 P OWER dwells with cheerfulness. 
 
 — Ralph Waldo Emerson . 
 
 * 
 
 I F I have done aught for you, oh friend, I do not ask that 
 you return the favor, but do for God’s sake pass it on. 
 
 — James Howard Kehler . 
 
 # 
 
 I N THE morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this 
 thought be present, — “I am rising to the work of a 
 human being.” — Marcus Aurelius . 
 
 $ 
 
 N ASPIRATION is joy forever, a possession as solid 
 as a landed estate. — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 [ 60 ] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 P EOPLE who lead busy lives never find time to have 
 hysterics. — J. M. Studley . 
 
 * 
 
 T HE best rose-bush, after all, is not that which has the 
 fewest thorns, but that which bears the finest roses. 
 
 — Henry van Dyke. 
 
 $ 
 
 N OT how much talent have I, but how much will to 
 use the talent that I have, is the main question. 
 
 — W. C . Gannett. 
 
 9 
 
 A HAPPY man or woman is a better thing to find than 
 a five-pound note — they practically demonstrate the 
 Theorem of the Livableness of Life. 
 
 — R. L. Stevenson. 
 
 9 
 
 B E PLEASANT until ten o’clock in the morning, and 
 the rest of the day will take care of itself. 
 
 # 
 
 I FIND the gayest castles in the air that were ever piled 
 far better for comfort and for use than the dungeons in 
 the air that are daily dug and caverned out by grumbling, 
 discontented people. A man should make life and nature 
 happier to us, or he had better never been born. 
 
 — Ralph Waldo Emerson . 
 
 [ 61 ] 
 
WK3 THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 8BE3 
 
 T HE year’s at the spring, 
 
 And the day’s at the morn; 
 
 Morning’s at seven; 
 
 The hillside’s dew-pearled; 
 
 The lark’s on the wing; 
 
 The snail’s on the thorn; 
 
 God’s in His heaven — 
 
 All’s right with the world! 
 
 m — Robert Browning . 
 
 •* 
 
 W E HAVE only to trust and do our best, and wear a 
 smiling face, as may be, for ourselves and others. 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 
 % 
 
 T HE perfect model makes the perfect copy. The suc- 
 cessful finish of everything on earth depends on the 
 right thought which brought it into being. 
 
 — Agnes Greene Foster. 
 
 2 
 
 T HERE are persons so radiant, so genial, so kind, so 
 pleasure-bearing, that you instinctively feel in their 
 presence that they do you good, whose coming into a 
 room is like the bringing of a lamp there. 
 
 — Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 9 
 
 I F there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is 
 the person of whom you ought never to speak. 
 
 — Richard Cecil. 
 
 [62] 
 
THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER 
 
 INVICTUS 
 
 UT of the night that covers me, 
 
 Black as the Pit from pole to pole, 
 I thank whatever gods may be 
 For my unconquerable soul. 
 
 In the fell clutch of circumstance 
 
 I have not winced nor cried aloud. 
 Under the bludgeoning of chance 
 
 My head is bloody, but unbowed. 
 
 Beyond this place of wrath and tears 
 Looms but the horror of the shade. 
 And yet the menace of the years 
 
 Finds and shall find me, unafraid. 
 
 It matters not how strait the gate, 
 
 How charged with punishment the scroll, 
 
 I am the master of my fate; 
 
 I am the captain of my soul. 
 
 — William Ernest Henley . 
 
 9 
 
 T O SIT still and contemplate — to remember the faces 
 of women without desire, to be pleased with the great 
 deeds of men without envy, to be everything and 
 everywhere in sympathy, and yet content to remain 
 where and what you are — is not this to know both 
 wisdom and virtue, and to dwell with happiness? 
 
 — Robert Louis Stevenson . 
 
 [63] 
 
8808 THE BOOK OF GOOD CHEER JOB 
 
 L’ENVOI 
 
 HEN Earth’s last picture is painted 
 And the tubes are twisted and dried, 
 
 When the oldest colors have faded, 
 
 And the youngest critic has died, 
 
 We shall rest — and, faith, we shall need it — 
 
 Lie down for an aeon or two. 
 
 Till the Master of All Good Workmen 
 Shall set us to work anew! 
 
 And those that were good shall be happy; 
 They shall sit in a golden chair: 
 
 They shall splash at a ten-league canvas 
 With brushes of comet’s hair; 
 
 They shall find real saints to draw from — 
 Magdalene, Peter and Paul; 
 
 They shall work for an age at a sitting 
 And never get tired at all ! 
 
 And only the Master shall praise us, 
 
 And only the Master shall blame; 
 
 And no one shall work for money. 
 
 And no one shall work for fame; 
 
 But each for the joy of the working, 
 
 And each in his separate star, 
 
 Shall draw the Thing as he sees It 
 For the God of Things as They Are. 
 
 — Rudyard Kipling* 
 
 [64]