our bright idea is stolen, you
can spare it; if you are truly bright, you have many more where that
one came from.

But beware of forced brightness. Wit is nothing if not spontaneous.
If nature has not endowed you with the instantaneous perception of
contrasts and incongruities, out of which flashes the swift conceit
called wit, do not imagine you are "dull" or uninteresting. There are
other gifts and graces less superficial, far more rare, and ultimately
more influential, than wit.

And though you are witty, do not talk nonsense over-much. Remember
that it is the "_little_ nonsense now and then" that is "relished by
the best of men." It is perilously easy to weary people with the
"smart" style of talk. But let your cheerful sense, grave or gay, be
as good an offering to your friends as you know how to make. Your next
special occasion--for which you might have "saved" all these
things--will lose nothing of value. It may rather gain fourfold, by
the reflex inspiration that replenishes every unselfish outpouring of
the nobler social spirit.

ON THE WING

Travelers have certain rights guaranteed by their regularly-purchased
tickets. Within such bounds they are privileged to claim all comforts
and immunities.

But the mannerly tourist will claim no more. He will not take up more
room than he is entitled to while other passengers are discommoded.
Nor will he persist in keeping his particular window open when the
draught and the cinders therefrom are troublesome or dangerous to other
people.

If travelers carry a lunch-basket, they should discuss its contents
quietly, and be careful not to litter the floor with crumbs, or the
_debris_ of fruits and nuts, nor to leave any trace of its presence
after the luncheon is finished.

If a lady is traveling under the escort of a gentleman, she will give
him as little trouble as possible. She will amuse herself by reading,
or studying the landscape, leaving him at liberty to choose similar
diversions when conversation grows tedious. She will carry few
parcels, and if possible will have arranged for some one to meet her at
her station, so that her obliging guardian need not be taxed to look
after her beyond the railway journey's end. If the gentleman has
attended to the purchase of tickets, and the paying of dining-car fees,
etc., the lady will repay those expenditures, as a matter of course,
thanking him for the trouble that he has taken to give her "safe
co