“We should brave trouble,” says Beecher, “as the New England boy braves winter.  The school is a mile away over the hill, yet he lingers not by the fire; but, with his books slung over his shoulder, he sets out to face the storm.  When he reaches the topmost ridge, where the snow lies in drifts, and the north wind comes keen and biting, does he shrink and cower down by the fences, or run into the nearest house to warm himself?  No; he buttons up his coat, and rejoices to defy the blast, and tosses the snow-wreaths with his foot; and so, erect and fearless, with strong heart and ruddy cheek, he goes on to his place at school.”

Children should be taught the habit of finding pleasure everywhere; and to see the bright side of everything.  “Serenity of mind comes easy to some, and hard to others.  It can be taught and learned.  We ought to have teachers who are able to educate us in this department of our natures quite as much as in music or art.  Think of a school or classes for training men and women to carry themselves serenely amid all the trials that beset them!”

“Joy is the mainspring in the whole
Of endless Nature’s calm rotation. 
Joy moves the dazzling wheels that roll
In the great timepiece of Creation.” 

          
                                                    Schiller.

The “Don’t worry” Society

was organized not long ago in New York; it is, however, just as well suited to other latitudes and longitudes.  It is intended for people who “cannot help worrying.”

If really you can’t help it, you are in an abnormal condition, you have lost self-control,—­it is a mild type of mental derangement.  You must attack your bad habit of worrying as you would a disease.  It is definitely something to be overcome, an infirmity that you are to get rid of.

“Be good and you will be happy,” is a very old piece of advice.  Mrs. Mary A. Livermore now proposes to reverse it,—­“Be happy and you will be good.”  If unhappiness is a bad habit, you are to turn about by sheer force of will and practice cheerfulness.  “Happiness is a thing to be practiced like a violin.”

Not work, but worry, fretfulness, friction,—­these are our foes in America.  You should not go here and there, making prominent either your bad manners or a gloomy face.  Who has a right to rob other people of their happiness?  “Do not,” says Emerson, “hang a dismal picture on your wall; and do not deal with sables and glooms in your conversation.”

If you are not at the moment cheerful,—­look, speak, act, as if you were.  “You know I had no money, I had nothing to give but myself,” said a woman who had great sorrows to bear, but who bore them cheerfully.  “I formed a resolution never to sadden any one else with my troubles.  I have laughed and told jokes when I could have wept.  I have always smiled in the face of every misfortune.  I have tried never to let any one go from my presence without a happy word or a bright thought to carry away.  And happiness makes happiness.  I myself am happier than I should have been had I sat down and bemoaned my fate.”