The one who is fixed for whatever they start
    Is rarely expected to prove it;
  They pass him along for the next shot in sight
    Where they take a full wind-up and groove it;
  For who wants to pick on a bulldog or such
    Where a quivering poodle is handy,
  When he knows he can win with a kick or a brick
    With no further trouble to bandy?

Grantland Rice.

From “The Sportlight.”

TWO AT A FIRESIDE

  I built a chimney for a comrade old,
    I did the service not for hope or hire—­
  And then I traveled on in winter’s cold,
    Yet all the day I glowed before the fire.

Edwin Markham.

From “The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems.”

TO-DAY

We often lose the happiness of to-day by brooding over the sorrows of yesterday or fearing the troubles of to-morrow.  This is exceedingly foolish.  There is always some pleasure at hand; seize it, and at no time will you be without pleasure.  You cannot change the past, but your spirit at this moment will in some measure shape your future.  Live life, therefore, in the present tense; do not miss the joys of to-day.

  Sure, this world is full of trouble—­
    I ain’t said it ain’t. 
  Lord!  I’ve had enough, an’ double,
    Reason for complaint. 
  Rain an’ storm have come to fret me,
    Skies were often gray;
  Thorns an’ brambles have beset me
    On the road—­but, say,
    Ain’t it fine to-day?

  What’s the use of always weepin’,
    Makin’ trouble last? 
  What’s the use of always keepin’
    Thinkin’ of the past? 
  Each must have his tribulation,
    Water with his wine. 
  Life it ain’t no celebration. 
    Trouble?  I’ve had mine—­
    But to-day is fine.

  It’s to-day that I am livin’,
    Not a month ago,
  Havin’, losin’, takin’, givin’,
    As time wills it so. 
  Yesterday a cloud of sorrow
    Fell across the way;
  It may rain again to-morrow,
    It may rain—­but, say,
    Ain’t it fine to-day!

Douglas Malloch.

THE ARROW AND THE SONG

We can calculate with fair accuracy the number of miles an automobile will go in an hour.  We can gauge pretty closely the amount of merchandise a given sum of money will buy.  But a good deed or a kind impulse is not measurable.  Their influence works in devious ways and lives on when perhaps we can see them no more.

  I shout an arrow into the air,
  It fell to earth, I knew not where;
  For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
  Could not follow it in its flight.

  I breathed a song into the air,
  It fell to earth, I knew not where;
  For who has sight so keen and strong,
  That it can follow the flight of song?