got to goin' wrong with me, I says: 'O Lord, whatever comes, keep me
from gittin' sour!' It wasn't fer my own sake I ast it,--some people
'pears to enjoy bein' low-sperrited,--it was fer the childern an' Mr.
Wiggs. Since then I've made it a practice to put all my worries down
in the bottom of my heart, then set on the lid an' smile."

"But you think ever'body's nice and good," complained Lovey Mary. "You
never see all the meanness I do."

"Don't I? I been watchin' old man Rothchild fer goin' on eleven year',
tryin' to see some good in him, an' I never found it till the other
day when I seen him puttin' a splint on Cusmoodle's broken leg. He's
the savagest man I know, yit he keered fer that duck as tender as a
woman. But it ain't jes seein' the good in folks an' sayin' nice
things when you're feelin' good. The way to git cheerful is to smile
when you feel bad, to think about somebody else's headache when yer
own is 'most bustin', to keep on believin' the sun is a-shinin' when
the clouds is thick enough to cut. Nothin' helps you to it like
thinkin' more 'bout other folks than about yerself."

"I think 'bout Tommy first," said Lovey Mary.

"Yes, you certainly do yer part by him. If my childern wore stockin's
an' got as many holes in 'em as he does, I'd work buttonholes in 'em
at the start fer the toes to come through. But even Tommy wants
somethin' besides darns. Why don't you let him go barefoot on Sundays,
too, an' take the time you been mendin' fer him to play with him? I
want to see them pretty smiles come back in yer face ag'in."

In a subsequent conversation with Miss Hazy, Mrs. Wiggs took a more