HOW TO CURE THE BLUES.
And so you have “the blues,” hey? Well, I pity you! No I don’t, either; there’s no need of it. If one friend proves a Judas, never mind! plenty of warm, generous, nice hearts left for the winning. If you are poor, and have to sell your free agency for a sixpence a week to some penurious relative, or be everlastingly thankful for the gift of an old garment that won’t hang together till you get it home, go to work like ten thousand evil spirits, and make yourselfindependent! then see with what a different pair of spectacles you’ll get looked at! Nothing like it! You can have everything on earth you want, when you don’tneedanything.
Don’t the Bible say, “To him that hath shall be given?” No mistake, you see. When the wheel turns round with you on the top (saints and angels!) you can do anything you like—play any sort of a prank—pout or smile, be grave or gay, saucy or courteous, it will pass muster! you never need trouble yourself—can’t do anything wrong if you try. At the most it will only be an “eccentricity!” But you never need be such a fool as to expect that anybody will find out you are adiamondtill you get ashowy setting. You’ll get knocked and cuffed around, and roughly handled, with paste and tinsel, and rubbish, till that auspicious moment arrives. Then! won’t all the sheaves bow down to your sheaf?—not one rebellious straggler left in the field! But stay a little.
In your adversity, found you one faithful heart that stood firmly by your side and shared your tears, when skies were dark, and your pathway thorny and steep, and summer friends fell off like autumn leaves? By all that’s noble in a woman’s heart, give that one the first place in it now. Let the world seeoneheart proof against the sunshine of prosperity. You can’t repay such a friend—all the minesof Golconda couldn’t do it. But in a thousand delicate ways, prompted by a woman’s unerring tact, let your heart come forth gratefully, generously, lovingly. Pray heaven he be on the shady side of fortune—that your heart and hand may have a wider field for gratitude to show itself. Extract every thorn from his pathway, chase away every cloud of sorrow, brighten his lonely hours, smooth his pillow of sickness, and press lovingly his hand in death.