uite palatial, for had it not a
"parlor" and a pantry and three bedrooms? The lady grieved and mourned
incessantly because it had no back-stairs. In ten years they built
another house, and it had everything, back-stairs, dumb-waiter, and
laundry shoot, and all the neighbors wondered if the lady would be
happy then. She wasn't. She wanted to live in the city. She had the
good house now and that part of her discontent was closed down, so it
broke out in another place. She hated the country. By diligently
keeping at it, she induced her husband to go to the city where the poor
man was about as much at home as a sailor at a dry-farming congress.
He made no complaint, however. The complaint department was always
busy! She suddenly discovered that a Western city was not what she
wanted. It was "down East." So they went. They bought a beautiful
home in the orchard country in Ontario, and her old neighbors watched
development. Surely she had found peace at last--but she hadn't. She
did not like the people--she missed the friendliness of the new
country; also she objected to the winters, and her dining-room was
dark, and the linen closet was small. Soon after moving to Ontario she
died, and we presume went to heaven. It does not matter where she
went--she won't like it, anyway. She had the habit of discontent.

There's no use looking ahead for happiness--look around! If it is
anywhere, it is here.

"I am going out to bring in some apples to eat," said a farmer to his
wife.

"Mind you bring in the spotted ones," said she who had a frugal mind.

"What'll I do if there are no spotted ones?" he asked.

"Don't bring any--just wait until they do spot!"

Too many people do not eat their apples until they are spotted.

But we know that life has its tragedies, its heartaches, its gloom, in
spite of all our philosophy. We may as well admit it. We have no
reason to believe that we shall escape, but we have reason to hope that
when these things come to us we will be able to bear them.

"Thou shalt not be _afraid_ of the terror by day, nor of the arrow that
flieth by night, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor
for the destruction that wasteth at noonday."

You will notice here that the promise is that you will not be afraid of
these things. They may come to you, but they will not overpower you,
or destroy you utterly, for you will not be afraid of them. It is fear
that kills. It is better to ha