ht enough.

"But the worst thing we had to do--hoein corn was a picnic to it--was
pickin' stones. There was no end to that on our old farm, if we wanted
to raise anything. When we wa'n't hurried and pressed with somethin'
else, there was always pickin' stones to do; and there wa'n't a plowin'
but what brought up a fresh crop, an' seems as if the pickin' had all to
be done over again.

"Well, you'd' a' thought, to hear Henry, that there wa'n't any fun in
the world like pickin' stones. He looked at it in a different way from
anybody I ever see. Once, when the corn was all hoed, and the grass
wa'n't fit to cut yet, an' I'd got all laid out to go fishin', and
father he up and set us to pickin' stones up on the west piece, an' I
was about ready to cry, Henry he says:--

"'Come on, Jim. I know where there's lots of nuggets.'

"An' what do you s'pose, now? That boy had a kind of a game that that
there field was what he called a plasser mining field; and he got me
into it, and I could 'a' sworn I was in Californy all day,--I had such a
good time.

"'Only,' says Henry, after we'd got through the day's work, 'the way you
get rich with these nuggets is to get rid of 'em, instead of to get
'em.'

"That somehow didn't strike my fancy, but we'd had play instead of work,
anyway, an' a great lot of stones had been rooted out of that field.

"An', as I said before, I can't give ye any dictionary definition of
optimism; but if your Uncle Henry wa'n't an optimist, I don't know what
one is."

At life's outset, says one, a cheerful optimistic temperament is worth
everything. A cheerful man, who always "feels first-rate," who always
looks on the bright side, who is ever ready to snatch victory from
defeat, is the successful man.

Everybody avoids the company of those who are always grumbling, who are
full of "ifs" and "buts," and "I told you so's." We like the man who
always looks toward the sun, whether it shines or not. It is the
cheerful, hopeful man we go to for sympathy and assistance; not the
carping, gloomy critic,--who always thinks it is going to rain, and that
we are going to have a terribly hot summer, or a fearful thunder-storm,
or who is forever complaining of hard times and his hard lot. It is the
bright, cheerful, hopeful, contented man who makes his way, who is
respected and admired.

Gloom and depression not only take much out of life, but detract greatly
from the chances of winning success. It is the bright and