The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1894-05-04
A JOYOUS LIFE.

at Mt that dread being old,' declared
Young girl to friend. ITS that dread not
| bel. G young; and | shouldn't mind not bell
young it it only meant growing less good
| looing. and having to take c,re Of my heal
| a little more, and avoiding east winds and
| that kind of thing.
"What am really afrail OF is not enj ~
ing things! There are Sd many things ENJOY
| now! But when think of enj lying the same
when am forty or fifty. it seems ridiculous
"A woman of fifty who is eager for parti IS
and pcnics and light novels and French candy
| and pretty slippers is not at all the kind OF
middle lged person want to be. Now co II
| tell ME that at fifty shall be occupied with
the serious responsibilities OF life aud shall
ere ass about Its pleasures. l dare say TIM
is t ne; but shll want some pleasures II
l live to be hundred, and yet-what Will
they be? 1t is not chreeful prospect"
She spoke only half i'll earnest; yet she
meai.t what she said
1t is perfectly lrne, moi cover that pea
ure and rec"eat on needed at all ages
| and the gill who can comprehend only the
evanescent i,ys which belong to Youth, shrinks
naturally from an old age that must be I'M
ilumined and dull.
The pleasures which pass with girlhood
may be good iii their way and in their day
but happy indeed i, the woman who has a
hobby, fancy. d study, Il passion for beauty
| of either nature or art, such as she can carry
| with her from Youth t, age t, refresh and.
| cheer her at all stages of her career.
Perhaps the happiest example Of woman
who enjoyed, ard enjoyed Intensely, rich
variety of pleasure from childhood to old age
was Mary Somerville, the great matthew iticiar.
As child she was a tom-5oy, delgLting IN
shells and birds and flowers, and her loving
interest in pets and blossoms she retained a.!
ways. After she was ninety her pet bird used
| to peck at her paper, sing upon her shoulder,
| and sleep upon her arm while she was writ
| ing.
AS young girl She was, though very shy,
so pretty. winning and popular, tn she was
known as the Rose of Jedwood and had her
full share of parties, plays, picnics, admiration
and social gayety. And a social person, and
eminently maker of friends, she always con-
tinued; but it cost her nothing to yield the
little privileges Of a belle when it came time
to do so. She had too many other joys, as
we'll as duties, to miss them
Bes: of all, the work which has made her
famous was her delight, and was done in the
intervals of her duties, as wife, mother and
holsekeeper, which she never neglected.
| She pursued her difficult studies for pure
joy in them, and, one task completed, not
happy until she begun another. Reaching
beyond even the great science which was her
speciality her attentive mind revealed IN each
new discovery in kindred of different drec
tions, until the daily spec!acl, of the universe
and the progress of man became to her
glorious drama of which she coull never
tire.
With noble love of the world she lived in
and :. tranquil hope Of that TO come, she wrote
| at ninety-four a touching testimony 10 her
| gratitude for the JOYS of life and for the unim-
| paired mind with which she could still trifle
! with abstrllse mathematics for amusement as
| in her prime: The final words OF her written.
| recOlections are these:
81 am perfectly happy."-iouhS Com
| laniOn.