TRUE GREATNESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19803, 19 May 1934, Page 13

TRUE GREATNESS.

(Said to have been written by a poor little Lancashire mill-hand girl). A person can never get True Greatness by trying for it. You can get it when you are not looking for it. It is nice to have good clothes, It makes it a lot easier to act decent, but it is a sign of true greatness to act when you have not got them, just as good as if you had. One time when ma was a little girl they had a bird at their house called Bill that broke his leg. They thought they would have to kill him, but next morning they found him propped up sort of sideways on his good leg, singing. That was true greatness. Once there was a woman that had done a big washing, and hung it on a line. The line broke and let it all down in the mud, but she didn’t say a word, only did it all over again, and this time she spread it on the grass where it couldn’t fall. But that night a dog with dirty feet ran over it. When she saw what was done she sat down and didn’t cry a bit. All she said was, “Ain’t it queer that he didn’t miss nothing?” That was true greatness, but it is only people who have done washing that know it. Once there was a woman that lived near a pig pen, and when the wind blew that way it was very smelly. At first when she went there she could not smell anything but pig, but when she lived there awhile she learnt to smell the clover blossoms through it. That was true greatness.