they revolve in their spheres. Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness,
altogether past calculation its powers of endurance. Efforts, to be
permanently useful, must be uniformly joyous, a spirit all sunshine,
graceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright."

"It is a good sign," says another writer, "when girlish voices carol
over the steaming dish-pan or the mending-basket, when the broom moves
rhythmically, and the duster flourishes in time to some brisk melody. We
are sure that the dishes shine more brightly, and that the sweeping and
dusting and mending are more satisfactory because of this running
accompaniment of song. Father smiles when he hears his girl singing
about her work, and mother's tired face brightens at the sound. Brothers
and sisters, without realizing it, perhaps, catch the spirit of the
cheerful worker."

There are singing milkers in Switzerland; a milkmaid or man gets better
wages if gifted with a good voice, for a cow will yield one-fifth more
milk when soothed by a pleasing melody.

It was said by Buffon that even sheep fatten better to the sound of
music. And when field-hands are singing, as you sometimes hear them in
the old country, you may be sure the labor is lightened.

It is Mrs. Howitt who has told us of the musical bells of the farm teams
in a rural district in England:--"It was no regular tune, but a
delicious melody in that soft, sunshiny air, which was filled at the
same time with the song of birds. Angela had heard all kinds of music in
London, but this was unlike anything she had heard before, so soft, and
sweet, and gladsome. On it came, ringing, ringing as softly as flowing
water. The boys and grandfather knew what it meant. Then it came in