The Detroit times., 1915-09-09
THE NEIGHBOR.
BY Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. by Frank Crane)

There are few things so conducive to
happiness rs a good neighbor,
A neighbor is nigh-boor, one whose
only claim upon you is living near.
We have one. whom / will describe.
She lives near. We never knew her
until we moved into our present quar-
terS.
There are other families about whom
we do not know. probably will never
know. II may toe their fault, perhaps
ours, probably both.
But this neighbor captured us at once.
forget how. 1t seems We had always
known her.
We have no common ground TO speak
of except that she is human to the back
bone and from head TO foot
Ii takes more skill to be a neighbor
than to be friend or a relative.
Friends you make for yourself; neigh
bors are the gifts of God To acquire
a real neighbor shows that you have
some knowledge Of how 70 adjust your
self TO the inevitable. II is a compliment
to you TO say that you have made pleas
one acquaintance of an enforced init
macy.
How do you get along with your fellow
passengers on "A two weeks ocean voy-
age What would you do cast away on
an island with a dozen strangers? Are
you gifted in discovering the link OF COM
mon humanity?
Our neighbor knows the fine line be-
tween intimacy and intrusion. She
seems never 10 call when we don't want
her She has q rare instinct that nicely
Judges Just when 10 approach Us. She
. knows how To- receive. IL Is a Joy TO give
her things She can take them with Just
the right expression of appreciation, not
so much as 10 be over-sweet, not so little
as 20 leave bad taste
She knows how to give. 1t is done with
supreme tact. When we had sickness she
sent TO us the most wonderful soup, not
plain soup in bowl, but soup all benap-
kinned and with flowers by It, and lit
tie note II was not a soup, 1t was a sac
rament of neighborliness.
She borrows and brings back. She
lends Just in the right spirit.
We have never made formal calls. We
have no convention equations to MAIN
tain. We don't know who her friends
are She doesn't know ours. She never
inquiries into our family affairs nor tells
her own. She is not friend she Is
neighbor, which is rarer.
When | have nothing else to do | go
over and talk with her. She respects my
little egotsms, obstinacies. and crazy
conceits. regarding them not as friend
anxious for my welfare. not as relative
concerned about my souls salvation or
nv salary, but as an amused and inter-
ested bystander; in a word, she has the
neighborly mind
When there was crepe on our door she
broke through her reserve and spent
much time at our house. But she was
unobtrusiveness itself. She helped
everywhere. She aided the girl in the
kitchen she looked after matters Of hats
and dresses. she swept, she went upon
errands. and AT precisely the right mo-
+. ments she talked 20 us. Nothing was too
mental nor too delicate for her TO under
take. as one human spirit for another.
Her habits Of life and those of her fam
ily are not ours. They do not 20 to bed
when we do, nor get up at our time.
They do not play our kind of games, nor
work at our kind of work. But she
never criticizes US, nor even appears 10
wonder. And she never gives us an open
ing 70 criticize her.
She understands the high art Of mind
ing her own business.
She Is not beautiful. she is charming.
She is not pretty, she is lovely She IS
not young bodied, but her mind IS smit-
ten with incurable youth.
She is neighbor She stands by. She
is human. and if you dig deep enough into
the human vou will find the divine