CHAPTER XXIX.
CHEERFULNESS AS A CHRISTIAN DUTY.
Near me stands an anniversary present from a dear friend.

It is a large "loving cup," and is just now full of my favorite nasturtiums--glowing as if they held in concentrated form all the sunshine which has brought them to their glory of orange, crimson, gold and scarlet.

The ware of which the cup is made is a rich brownish-yellow in color, and between each of the three handles is a dainty design in white-and-cream, surrounded by an appropriate motto.
The one turned toward me at present forms the text of my present talk and will, I hope, prove a happy hint to some of my readers: "Be always as happy as ever you can, For no one delights in a sorrowful man." The rhyming couplet has set me to thinking, long and seriously, upon the duty of cheerfulness, a duty which we owe not only to our fellow-men, but to ourselves.

It is such an uncomfortable thing to be miserable that I marvel that any sensible human being ever gives way to the inclination to look on the dark side of life.
In writing this article, I wish to state in the beginning that the women to whom it is addressed are not those over whom bereavement has cast dark shadows.

For genuine grief and affliction I have vast and unbounded sympathy.