mple deeds of kindness
done by a company of young people in Brooklyn to a young woman married
to an elderly and uncongenial man. She showed symptoms of taking her
life into her own hands. She felt that the world owed her happiness, and
she was tempted to take it anywhere it might be found, especially in one
undesirable direction. She was poor and outside of many ordinary social
pleasures. The word was passed along the line that Mrs. D... needed
especial attention and friendliness shown her. Immediately one girl,
whose notice was in itself a compliment, invited her to attend a concert
with her. Two more volunteered to see her home from Sunday school, and
call for her as well. Books were loaned her, calls made, and in brief, a
rope of warm sturdy hands steadying her over the hard place in the road,
until she found herself and settled down to the duty she was on the
point of leaving forever.

The widespread hunger for such little kindnesses was shown one day when
a New York man accosted in Central Park a poor foreigner, who could
speak little English. Noting that the man looked dejected, he offered
him his hand. Then he asked the man if he was in need. "No, I don't need
money," was the reply; "I was just hungry for a handshake." Blessings on
those who are not too busy to think of the poor who are hungry for the
little services they can render.

If they could know the ultimate effect of some of their deeds, these
would not always seem insignificant. The man who is always on the
lookout for little chances for service is more apt to perform services
that are of great importance, than the man who spends his time dreaming
of big things he will do some day.

IV

DID HE GO TOO FAR?

When an urgent call went out from Washington for physicians to go to
France for hospital work among the men of the American Expeditionary
Force, a specialist in a city of the Middle West decided to respond. Of
course some of his friends told him he was foolish; they urged that he
was needed for service at home. "Let doctors go who can be spared
better than you," they said. "Think of the great work you are
doing--work that will be more than ever necessary because thousands of
others are leaving practices and going to the Front. Think of your
past--how you worked your way through medical college at cost of severe
toil; think of your family and the increasing demands on you; think of
the future--what will become of your lucrative practice?"

Th