The Girl with the Ready Smile.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10783, 3 June 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Girl with the Ready Smile.

"There's nothing half so sweet ill life as love's voung dream," sang Tom Moore years ago; and an American novelist added later the words, "or the girl with a ready smile." As you dnit farther on through life you realise how wise was that American novelist. The girl with tho ready smile ! —what a power she is! You jostle against her in a crowd and turn round with a look of annoyance, which quickly disappears because a dimpling fare is looking into yours, and a sweet, charming voice is saying "Beg pardon." The girl witn the smile has gone. It was just the episode of a second, but it leaves its mark, and the day is a iitlle easier, the still is a little blighter, because you have rubbed shoulders with a girl with a ready smile.

You'meet her in your social or business world. She may be at 'ii■ afternoon tea that is going dull, or she may be behind the counter of a crowded city shop ; she's just a stranger, probably an "outsider." but she flashes 011 you a look like one of God's sunbeams, and call.s up an answering ray of brightness fron your very soul. if she smiles upon you in an hour of trouble, what a soothing balm her is! Your heart may be all leaden, but there seems to be a sympathetic something behind her oyes that means "I'm sorrv." It- somehow gives you courage for another fight. Years after, in other troubles, a little lingering memory of a glorious smile of sympathy comes back, and is again a potent power. The girl with the ready smile is a God-send to this heavy-hearted old world. She is as an elixir to youth and age alike. The schoolboy, with his eyes fairlv blazing, votes her "Bully," and the title is born of the unlimited love and honor of his bohemian soul. Her girl friends call her a "dear." To older women she is a "really helpful girl." The old, old man watches her with a power of tenderness. She is to him a ray of sunshine that steals into the dark places of his memory. "That's just exactly what my old woman was — years ago—when we were—courting." His white head moves with a knowing nod, and his knotted hand brushes over eves that have suddenly become bright. The very young man calls her "sweet" or "jolly"—but the blase man of the world's estimate of her is bound with reverence.

Yes, she's quite a power, your girl with the ready smile.