Not because I think you jolly,
Melancholy!
Not for that I mean to hoard you,
Keep you close and lodge and board you
As I would my sisters, brothers,
Cousins, aunts, and old grandmothers,
But that you shan't bother others
With your sniffling, snuffling folly,
Howling,
Yowling,
Melancholy.


_John Kendrick Bangs._

From "Songs of Cheer."




THE LION PATH


Admiral Dupont was explaining to Farragut his reasons for not taking his
ironclads into Charleston harbor. "You haven't given me the main reason
yet," said Farragut. "What's that?" "You didn't think you could do it."
So the man who thinks he can't pass a lion, can't. But the man who
thinks he can, can. Indeed he oftentimes finds that the lion isn't
really there at all.