The Washington herald., 1914-04-23
A Happy Man.
Ry JOHN d. BARRY.


man looked out on the world and laughed Tor
joy
: He saw the great dome of the sky, with diaphan-
Gus clouds majestically sailing across the blue. He
the pouring gold into the air and on the roofs
and into the windows of multitude of homes. He
saw waving trees and flowers and wide sweep OF
moving water. He saw people with happy faces,
eagerly talking.
He said to himself, Life is good" and he looked
up and he had wonderful feeling of sympathy that
made him related the people and the moving water
and the gold in the atmosphere, to the flowers, the
trees and to the great dome of the sky.
He threw back his head and his shoulders and
he felt life coursng through him. And what he
called life was really love.
Soon there came day when there was no sun,
when the air thick with rain, when the flowers
were vanished and the were bare. And the man
laughed. He liked the rain He would go out and
let it beat upon him, with his head bent and his
shoulders pressing eagerly forward
He knew the flowers only in hiding. After a
few months very shyly they would come out of their
beds and smile and look up at the sun again. And the
trees too would put fresh verdure and open their
leaves to the sky. For being away so long they would
seem all the more beautiful
There was another day when the shone and
the flowers bloomed and the trees moved and the
water danced without making the man laugh. In his
heart there was gloom. And the gloom darkened his
vision.
He said to himself: "The world is still the same
world The only change is in myself. So must con-
troll myself If l don't l shall go blind. l shall be
unable to see the wonderful things about me, the
things that have made me laugh"
So he would force himself to smile Some one
would smile back. He would feel better. Presently
he forgot about the gloom. When he looked for it
he was eated to find that it gone
There were many days like the day when gloom
threatened. But the man always knew what was to
be done Gloom finally became discouraged and never
came back
People used to say Isn't he remarkable? Nothing
ever to bother him."
Sometimes they would wonder what would hap
pen when the big trials came They didn't understand
that every day of his life he practcing to meet
the big trials
The first came to the man in the guise of great
He had expected to do something
wonderful 1t would bring him honor and reward
And he could share it all with those he loved. But
just when he thought it was his it eluded him. And
he that it never would return.
The world grew black for a moment only for a
moment. During that moment no one looked on.
When it was over the assured himself that the
world was still beautiful He gazed out of the win
dow and through a haze he saw the SUN shining. He
lifted his head and threw back his shoulders according
to his habit of years He drew long breath. He
could not laugh But he did succeed in smiling.
Il must do better the next time this kind of thing
happens he said and he went down stairs to comfort
and distract those he knew would be grevng for him.
And there he found such increase in the of
love that he forgot all about that other treasure In
fact that other treasure did not like treasure
at all.
A worse trial was on the way to the One
that was part of his very being the blossom of his
life the hope of the future, suddenly swept out
OF the world He felt as if all the force of life had
turned against him. He trembled in an anguish of
grief and fear.
But the practice of years helped him. He must not
think of himself now. There else far
more important whose grief must be greater. So he
tried to forget about himself.
Once more he realized the beauty in the divine mys-
terry of loss. He had less life now, but He
felt closer relation with life the life about him and
the life in his own heart Suffering was making his
love finer and deeper. And it was giving him wider
Often people used to wonder They knew that the
man mad mol won any OF u1e lningS tne World con-
sidered the prizes of life He had suffered disap-
pointment and bereavement. And yet he met life
snilngly gayly
Even while they specuated they found themselves
giving him respect and affection. Occasionally some
of them would try to explain the mystery by saying
well, there's something about him" But they got
no nearer.
When the grew older he still looked young.
There youth in his smile and in his eyes and in
his response to the demands of the day.
He would often sit in silence for long time, look
ing at the great dome of the sky, with daphanous
clouds maestcaly sailing the blue at the sun
pouring gold into the air and the roofs and into the
windows of multitude of homes at the waving trees
and the flowers and the wide sweep of moving water,
and at the people with happy faces eagerly talking
What About SuIzer?
II is little early for the Propressyes IN he sun,