Norwich bulletin., 1914-07-25
NATURE MEETS ALL THE DEMANDS OF OLD GRUMP AND MIR GoODCHEER

(written Specially for The Bnlletin.)
 Things are so arranged in this world that if one wants to whimper and whine and snivel. he can md plenty of pretexts for doing so.-so can she if my subject happens to belong to
 Somebody once asserted that every cloud has a silver lining. Perhaps; but the very statement assumes that there actually Is a cloud to start of with: and cloud is,-Well. IS cloudy, to say the best of it.
 l have read of savage tribe some where whose custom 1t is when child is born to sprinkle it with road dust and ashes. lay a small pebble upon its lips and address 1t something this way: "Child. thou art born into a' world whose roads are rough ana cruel; thou art born to suffer; endure then AND BE STILL"
 It may very gravely be doubted whether anyone Is truly born to suf- fer" For my part. I'm much more inclined to believe that Providence doesn't intend suffering for anyone, any more than it intends enjoyment and real bubbling happiness IL m tends to give all their choice.
 Of course, there's misery in the worla Also there are rattlesnakes and tigers. But Providence provides a range for tigers in Central Africa, and for rattfesnakes among the, ledses of wild mountains. 1t doesn't send hordes of either into Franklin square. where men and women have to gather Those who are really looking after rattlesnakes and tigers can always find them-by going where they are Those who don't really want to meet them don't run much risk so long as they stick to the trolley tracks ana telephone lines
 If a man pretends that he doesn't want to be bitten by rattler and de- 3iberately walks out to Rattlesnake Hiil and puts in his spare time pulling them out of their holes by their tails, the chances are that he'll get bitten sooner or later. When he does 1t won't be the rattlesnake's fault. nor Prov1- dence's Itll be his own, and if the bite hurts he'd better keep to himself the suffering he's brought on himself
 There are some men and women who go through life daily and hourly whimpering over their own woes, as II they had been specially selected by some outside power to be unfairly a1- nicted. There are others who go through that same life with the smile on their faces that won't come on, and seem actually to believe that Provi- .dance is pretty good to them.
 fAc difference is in the folks, not in thsir surroundings
 On steanins. broilins, summer day, the heat is just as hot. around John the Joyful as it is around Silas. the SorrowfuI John takes 1t as 8 part of the fnevitabie: gets busy about some thing that will take his mind off it; thinks as little as possible about 1t and often comes quite near to for getting it. Silas whimpers and com plains and mops his face and fans, wonders if ever any man felt so hof as he. Yet a thermometer under Sfias' shirt wouldn't register degree hot ter than one under Johns.
 It isn't the heat; it's the fellow on the gridiron that makes all the differ ence.
 Seems to me l never knew a season on the farm which afforded a better illustration of tHAs general idea than the present summsr. We're having one of pretty nearly all sorts, mixed llp and thrown together, here on Podunk Hill. A farmer or eardener who can't find things to snfvel aSout,-if he really wants to snfvel-isMH Ne to be classed as pessimist. On thD Geher hand, one who as sincerely wan1B to find con solations doesn't need to aerain his in vention to manufacture them. They are just as freely at hanA.
 To begin with, the spring 0pened late and wet. Flowing was delayed: many seeds were not in a month after the normal date. And Sorrowf6l Silas went up and down the byways be- moaning himself over the gloomy prospects. Then, all of a sudden. 1t cleared eff. the sun took charge again the wet world woke up and things fairly jumped. Whereupon Joyful John skipped along behind his blow and enrolled his gladness with the birds. Pretty soon it began to get too dry Sorrowful Silas promptly came to the fore again. Couldn't get not l. in in early cause twas too wet; now everything Id burn up. twas so dry. After a couple of weeks along came a series of thunder-showers. Joyful John hilariously threw up his hat and blessed the moisture which urged his young crops to an almost unpFece- dented rate of growth.
 60 it has been right along. Any old Groggetty -Grumper could find plenty of things to complain about, if that wNlM what w1S lnnlfiner for-. nr. fhe