The Washington herald., 1917-02-12
The House of Happiness.
BY oRIsON SWEET MARDEN,

A poor little boy, so runs an old
story, once lived in an old weather
worn cottage on the top of hill. He
was dreamy boy and every evening
at sunset he would sit on the door
step looking down toward the valley,
fascinated by a beautiful house with
wonderful golden windows shining a
long way off at the far end of the
valley.
He was greatly dissatisfied with the
poverty of his surroundings, and the
sight of the house in the valley, where
he had never been, made him very
unhappy. "Ah," he would sigh, what
a poor, miserable home my hut is!
If could only live in that beautiful
house with the golden windows how
happy | should be-"
One evening when the golden win
dows, more wonderful than ever,
seemed beckoning him to come, the
boy made up his mind he would go
and visit the house beautiful. So,
early next morning he started out.
The road was dusty and the sun was
hot, but the little traveller trudged
on and on. At length, toward sun
down he found himself at the far
side of the valley. But what had be-
come of the beautiful house he had
seen from his hilltop? What he
stood looking at was only an old
tumbledown barn. And the wonder
full windows? Alas, they were not
gold at all, but just ordinary glass,
and dirty and broken, too.
Tired and thirsty, the little boy
flung himself on the ground with his
back to the deserted barn, and sobbed
bitterly. Then, slowly raising his
head and looking up across the val
ley, through binding tears, he saw a
shining blur-his own little cottage
on the hilltop! And 10, its windows,
in the light of the setting sun, were
sheet of blazing goldl
How like this little boy we grown
ups are! 1t is always the house in the
distance that beckons. The beauty
and glory of life, to Our discontented
longing eyes, are always afar off in
some other place and time, some
where else than just where we are
and in what we are doing. Some day
We hope to enter the house beautiful,
but not today. We expect that in the
future, through some magic or other,
through money or what money can
purchase, we are going to find hap
piness. But no human being has ever
grasped the beautiful golden mirage
which beckons him in the distance.
The chief cause Of our discomfort
and unhappiness is that hardly any
one is satisfied with what he has. The
little simple things don't count for
anything with US. We are always
looking for some big thing to make
us haPpy-a fortune, some grand op-
portunity, some indefinite happiness
which we arc at loss to describe.
And we seem to think that whatever
this thing is that is going to make
us really happy, is always somewhere
in the shadowy future
We don't fit our environment, and
we are not happy because we are al
ways straining after the thing just
out of our reach.
Half the world is on the wrong
scent in the pursuit of happiness"
said Henry Drummond. "They think
it consists in having and getting and
in being served by others. 1t con-
sists in giving and in serving Others"
Happiness is something which is
released from our acts, and from our
thoughts. A little of it here and a
little there is released from our good
deeds, our unselhsh service, from our
right acts and thoughts. Some of it
is released every time we help or en-
courage another soul A little of it is
released when we give helping hand
to those who have fallen under their
burdens. A little of it is released
from the sacrifices we make for the
advantage of others.
We get our happiness just as the
bee gets honey. The bee does not
find honey ready-made. 1t must work
hard for all it gets. 1t can only get
little bit from each flower it visits.
We do not get happiness ready-madc.
We sip it from the flowers of life,
and, like the bee, we must get a lit
tie happiness honey here and little
there as we go through the garden, of
life. Those who do most of the
deeds which release happiness, who
get the largest aggregate of them in
their lives, enjoy the most and are the
happiest
Every noble deed, every unselhsh
act, every bit of helpfulness to others,
every good service to humanity, every
lofty aspiration and helpful thought
inevitably brings an amount of hap