The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-03
WHAT SUNSHINE
A GREAT BLESSING.
Sunny Souls.

Sunny Souls.
Sunlight and good temper are SC
nearly related that it is hardly a figure
Of speech to speak Of sunny dlsposi-
rion or a sunny smile sunny seems the
plainest, simplest and most natural
word for the fact. Good-tempered, gay
and genial people, too, generally love
the actual sun, and wish to have abun-
dant light and color about them.
Charles Dickens delighted in color to
the verge of gaudiness. He could
hardly restrain his exuberant taste to
the modest hues demanded in gentle
mans attire, while In his home he rev.
elled in wide windows, bright tints,
large mirrors and plenty of flowers,
scarlet geraniums being his favor
ties. Red, wherever it was possible to
use it, was the color of his choice.
Sydney Smith rejoiced in a burst of
sunlight. "Glorify the room, Saba r'
he would cry cheerlly to his daughter
when he came downstairs in the
morning and wished the curtains
drawn aside.
Lydia Maria Child's pleasure in the
flowers, the pictures and the little Or
naments of her home was endless en-
riched as they we're by abundant sun
shine broken here and there into rain
bows by prisms which she had so ar
ranged as to send CLEANS of green, vio-
let and orange gliding and dancing
over the plain walls and ceiling in the
beauty of which her eye never wearied.
She used to laugh contentedly at her
own daily satisfaction in such trifles,
and fear that people would think her
childish. But her prisms, as friend
once truly said, were like her own clear
and beautiful soul, which gathered to
itself the cheer and happiness of every
day, and transmitted common blessings
into something rare and precious-the
sunny presence which carries with it,
wherever 1t goes, kindness, warmth and
comfort.
"Folks make so little of sunlight"
said a poor woman, shaking her head,
"folks that can have all they want of
it they don't know what it's worth"
She was woman whose work was
done in an upper room, very poor and
bare, in squalid neighborhood in the
city but from her high window she
had received every day tor several years
the full glory of the morning sun
then great tenement building of
many flats was built near by and shut
1t out 1t was sore blow, and at first
she hardly knew how she should bear
it, she missed the light and warmth 80
bitterly.
"But," she added, triumphantly,
"there's way to better most things, if
body can find it; and one day in the
winter, when was just thinking what
deal of sunshine was wasted on that
great fiat roof, where it did no good, it
popped into my head that it might do
good, after all, if somebody set about
letting it.
$50 I made friends with some of the
folks in the house, and we talked and
then with more of 'e1n, and talked and
one day l met the owner there and
talked and sure enough, by spring
they'd taken up with my notion, the
whole OF 'em, and they went at it to-
gether, and prettier garden than they
have up there to-day you never saw
All, it's beauty-fowers and sun all
day long, and every breath of GOODNESS
whichever way it blows!
"Sure, roof garden is better than
bit of sun for one poor old woman
and then the friends I've made out of
it And hardly day all summer that
I've not flower or bunch OF posies the
children bring for my little jug there
and once in a while, when I'm not too
tired, climb up and see the place for.