The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1902-08-01
HAVE A GOOD TEMPER.
Availability Is the Secret of Welded
Happiness and a Charm That
Never Dies.

IT it were necessary to give an opln-
ion as to what is the first and chief
constituent of happy marriage one
might hesitate for moment over the
thought of many almost indispensable
virtues, and daily over that of abb
solute trustfulness on both sides, but
one, if thinking and weighing DELHI
erately, would decide presently that
the real requisite for happiness in
marriage is good nature. Not that a
tempest once in a great while may
not be worth while to clear the air
and to show how good the other is,
but in the long, round year the sun
shine and fair weather is the best,
writes Harriet P. Spofford, in the
Washington Star.
What will you not pardon to sun
ny-faced rogue? A man may commit
countless peccadilloes, thousand of
lenses against good taste, even be
guilty of sins, but an unfailing sweet
ness of disposition will win forgive
ness for them all. A woman may be
eXtravagant, poor housekeeper, even
slatternly, or provoker of scandal,
but there is no disruption in the house
hold of which she is mistress as long
as with smile she acknowledges her
fault, though her sin is ever before
us. A pair of dimples has saved many
little scamp from whipping; they
are just as useful when the scamp
is older and the dimples are slipping
into wrinkles. For the dimple is not
o,,1x, e 1. l. l.
it stimulates the smiles of others.
Who can rebuke too sharply or too
frequently when reproach is always
received without retort, without af-
front? Who is not made to feel upon
the spot that good nature is better
than any impeccability?
We have, most of us, seen exquisite
housekeepers who all but follow the
intruder about with broom, who are
ready to dust the chair you rise from,
require overshoes to be left outside
the door; who, if you take a book from
one room and lay it down, carry it
back before your eyes; who make more
broken bones. And most of us pre-
fer for companion the home-body,
who makes no fuss about anything,
but who is tender and caressing and
gay and consoling and sympathetic
and always sweet-tempered, although
there be fluff on her floors, and hicks
on her dishes, and no meal ready at it's
appointed hour.
And most of us, again, rather than
with the petulant and fault-inding
man, or with the stern and sour and
solemn incarnation of all the virtues,
or with the lofty and superior soul,
without whose wisdom and learning
the world could not revolve, would
choose companionship with the Off
hand, happy-go-lucky fellow, who, if
the dinner is late, says: "Never mind;
it will be all the better when it does
come" or if we ourselves are late for
church or theater or outing, says:
"Well, we will enjoy it all the more
when we get there" or, if the serv-
declaring: "We can't expect perfec-
ton for the price we pay" And this
man may have his better faults, he
may not be at home as much as you
would like, he may be too careful
about the spending of his money, he
may have various habits unpleasant to
you; but you love him quite aside from
affairs for which he is hardly response
BILE; you find some one else to be
blamed for them, he himself is the sun
ny creature who brightens gloom
wherever he goes, and of whose love
you feel assured, whether in truth it
is yours or not. And, after all, the
assurance of love produces happiness.
In fact, good nature is a charm that
never dies. Beauty fades, accomplish
ments fail, but good nature survives
till all else falls to dust. 1t blends the
opposing and contradictory elements
like fortunate solvent. 1t acts pre-
cisely as sunshine does, and where you
find it happiness fourishes and life is
enriched. In any individual it declares
the existence of a calm and strong
nervous temperament, and nothing
lends itself more to peace and pros
perity in household than that. 1t
is blessed thing, then, that such
trait can be established; that repres-
sion here and expression there, and
determination everywhere will make
it grow and thrive and become habit.
1t is the outer embodiment of love;
and the man who is seldom without it
IS the one to whom the town turns,
on whom the beggars smile, after
whom the children run, whose pres
ence soothes trouble, and whose wife
is sure that even if she wears her old
bonnet she is lovely in his eyes.
GOoseberry Dessert.