niels always had the
carpet greasy with cake crumbs wherever she sat, and mother didn't
think the Lord liked a dirty church any more than we would have wanted
a mussy house. When I had Bobby and Hezekiah settled I took my text
from my head, because I didn't know the meeting feeling was coming on
me when I started, and I had brought no Bible along.

"Blessed are all men, but most blessed are they who hold their
tempers." I had to stroke Bobby a little and pat Hezekiah once in a
while, to keep them from flying down and fighting, but mostly I could
give my attention to my sermon.

"We have only to look around us this morning to see that all men are
blessed," I said. "The sky is big enough to cover every one. If the
sun gets too hot, there are trees for shade or the clouds come up for a
while. If the earth becomes too dry, it always rains before it is
everlastingly too late. There are birds enough to sing for every one,
butterflies enough to go around, and so many flowers we can't always
keep the cattle and horses from tramping down and even devouring
beautiful ones, like Daniel thought the lions would devour him--but
they didn't. Wouldn't it be a good idea, O Lord, for You to shut the
cows' mouths and save the cowslips also; they may not be worth as much
as a man, but they are lots better looking, and they make fine greens.
It doesn't seem right for cows to eat flowers; but maybe it is as right
for them as it is for us. The best way would be for our cattle to do
like that piece about the cow in the meadow exactly the same as ours:

"'And through it ran a little brook,
Where oft the cows would drink,
And then lie down among the flowers,
That grew upon the brink.'

"You notice, O Lord, the cows did not eat the flowers in this instance;
they merely rested among them, and goodness knows, that's enough for
any cow. They had better done like the next verse, where it says:

"'They like to lie beneath the trees,
All shaded by the boughs,
Whene'er the noontide heat came on:
Sure, they were happy cows!'

"Now, O Lord, this plainly teaches that if cows are happy, men should
be much more so, for like the cows, they have all Thou canst do for
them, and all they can do for themselves, besides. So every man is
blessed, because Thy bounty has provided all these things for him,
without money and without price. If some men are not so blessed as
others, it is their own fault, and not Yours. Yo