S.E.  Kiser.

CO-OPERATION

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately,” Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

  It ain’t the guns nor armament,
    Nor funds that they can pay,
  But the close co-operation,
    That makes them win the day.

  It ain’t the individual,
    Nor the army as a whole,
  But the everlasting team-work
    Of every bloomin’ soul.

J.  Mason Knox.

THE NOBLE NATURE

There is a deceptive glamour about mere bigness.  Quality may accompany quantity, but it need not.  In fact good things are usually done up in small parcels.  “I could eat you at a mouthful,” roared a bulky opponent to the small and sickly Alexander H. Stephens.  “If you did,” replied Stephens quietly, “you’d have more brains in your belly than ever you had in your head.”

      It is not growing like a tree
      In bulk, doth make Man better be;
  Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
  To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: 
          A lily of a day
          Is fairer far in May,
      Although it fall and die that night—­
      It was the plant and flower of Light. 
  In small proportions we just beauties see;
  And in short measures life may perfect be.

Ben Jonson.

DAYS OF CHEER

Edison says that genius is two parts inspiration, ninety-eight parts perspiration.  So happiness is two parts circumstance, ninety-eight parts mental attitude.

  “Feelin’ fine,” he used to say,
  Come a clear or cloudy day,
  Wave his hand, an’ shed a smile,
  Keepin’ sunny all th’ while. 
  Never let no bugbears grim
  Git a wrastle-holt o’ him,
  Kep’ a-smilin’ rain or shine,
  Tell you he was “feelin’ fine!”

  “Feelin’ fine,” he used to say
  Wave his hand an’ go his way. 
  Never had no time to lose
  So he said, fighting blues. 
  Had a twinkle in his eye
  Always when a-goin’ by,
  Sort o’ smile up into mine,
  Tell me he was “feelin’ fine!”

  “Feelin’ fine,” he’d allus say,
  An’ th’ sunshine seemed to stay
  Close by him, or else he shone
  With some sunshine of his own. 
  Didn’t seem no clouds could dim
  Any happiness for him,
  Allus seemed to have a line
  Out f’r gladness—­“feelin’ fine!”

  “Feelin’ fine,” I’ve heard him say
  Half a dozen times a day,
  An’ as many times I knowed
  He was bearin’ up a load. 
  But he never let no grim
  Troubles git much holt on him,
  Kep’ his spirits jest like wine,
  Bubblin’ up an’ “feelin’ fine!”

  “Feelin’ fine”—­I hope he’ll stay
  All his three score that-a-way,
  Lettin’ his demeanor be
  Sech as you could have or me
  Ef we tried, an’ went along
  Spillin’ little drops o’ song,
  Lettin’ rosebuds sort o’ twine
  O’er th’ thorns and “feelin’ fine.”