Items of Interest.

Lake County Press, Issue 2184, 29 August 1907, Page 7

Items of Interest.

YOU will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments that stand cue, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have dene things in a spirit of love.

There is no duty so much underrated 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.

If you would keep in ycur hearts, learn to sing. There is more meiit in melody than most people are aware of. A cobbler who smooths his wax-end with a song will' do as much work in a day as one given to illnature and fretting would effect in a week. Songs are like sunshine, they run to cheer fulness, to fill the bosom with such buoyancy, that, for the time being, you feel filled with June air, or like a meadow of clover in blossom.

The little things which you may do for those about you will fall back upon your heart as the summer dews fall upon vineyards, What if it is nothing but a kind word to a schoolboy crying in the street ? It dries his tears, and the aching heart grows light and glad again. Who knows what a cloud of darkness one kind word may dispel ? Wear a smile and make others, happy. There is no joy so great as that which springs from a kind act or a pleasant deed.

We all know the kind of person who will work only when praise is being given out When the praise io over, when the :eal burden and drudgery come in, such a sham worker slips from under the load at once. The real worker is different. 1 Happy are they who find satisfaction in doing good things that nobody notices !’

A man seems never to know what anything means till he has lost it; and this, I suppose, is tne reason why losses—vanishings away of things—are among the teachings of this world of shadows. The substance, indeed, teacheth, but the vacuity, whence it has disappeared, yet more. The full sigoifiancy of those words, property, ease, health —the wealth of meaning that lies in the fond epithets, parent, child, friend—we never know till they are taken away ; till, in place of the bright, visible being, comes the awful and desolate shadow, where nothing is —where we stretch our hands in vain, ard strain our eyes upon dark and dismal vacuity. Still, in that vacuity, we do not lose the object we have loved; it only becomes more real to us. Thus do blessings not only brighten when they depart, but are fixed in enduring reality; and friendship itself receives an everlasting seal bmeath the cold impress of death. —Dewey.

It was a pretty, clear little brook, llowhig on its course through tho woods at the foot of a lull, but ano day a great stone, loosening from its place on the hillside, came crashing down and lodged in the stream, checking its course and hindering its How. The water beat against the obstruction, dashed in white foam against its sides, and sent its spray like teardrops on every side. Hut the stone was immovable ; it'had come to stay, and it only imbedded itself mors firmly in the soft earth. A few weeks later, however, the brook was found flowing peacefully again. It had changed its course a little, had worn for itself a new channel round the stone and was rippling and singing on its way once more. Into many human lives—into most, perhaps, at One time or another—aomes some unexpected barring of the way. Some accident or illness which leaves the physical powers impaired, some change in circumstances which straitens and hampers, some groat sorrow or aflliction which can neither be removed nor altered suddenly interferes with life’s accustomed flow, and threatens all its peace and usefulness. We may spand all our strength in wild revolt and vain beating against it, or, like the wise little stream, we may accept it cheerfully and bravely.