Social Moods.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 386, 1 October 1903, Page 7

Social Moods.

HAPPY THOUGH SINGLE, WfIKHEJ paths of the single is not always §jwm strewn with flowers. There comes gjg&s a time wh°n the heyday of youth

is past, and we realise how sad it is to he ' alone.' With man this is felt with the first twinge of goat. Woman realises it when she is no longer adored, for as long as a woman is loved she is young. A girl looks forward to being married—it is the one aim of her life. Wedding bells chime in the distance, and for a long while the icant of the orange blosEoms is sweet in the air. When the radiant hopes fade in the stress of grim reality, life is no longer worth the living to many of us. L'ufc the sweetest souls that ever gladdened our poor world are those that have stood the test and come triumphant out of the hard ordeal. The happy (though single) are those whose wider sympathies and larger hearts make it possible for them to forget themselves in the lives of others. They are like exquisitely sensitive instruments whose vibrations are awakened by the lightest tcinh. They thrill to every sorrow; they sympathise with good or evil fortune. They no longer liva for themselves; they belong, body and soul to those who need them. If we tarn round we will find them beside us— Uncle John, who gets his graceless nephews out of every scrape, and surreptitiously lends the 'boys' money to pay their debts; Aunt Mary, the patient butt of the younger ones, the trusted friend and confidant of her grown-up nieces. In time of illness, trouble, or rejoicing, it is ' Send for Aunt Mary,' and as quick as trains can bring her she is here with her sweet, calm face and patient smile, her soothing voice and capable, harmonious ways. Peace comes in her track. The servants stop quarrelling, the baby goes to deep, the wife ceases to worry, and the husband stops grumbling; order is restored, and everything goes on velvet. Aunt Mary is happy. She smiles a little diplomatic smile, and inwardly congratulates herself upon the fact that she is free—free to be of use, to live her own life in her own way, without those costly joys that wives and mothers buy so dear. Happy Aunt Mary! She goes back, with a sense of relief and duty bravely accomplished, to her peaceful little home, where she is lovingly welcomed by her old servant, her parrot, her cat, and her dog—disinterested friends, to whom she is a little world, and all her big maternal heart Jgoes out in thankfulness for the love she bo well deserves. The little, despised joys that others scorn make up the sum of her every-day life, and fill her simple soul to overflowing.