HOW IT HAPPENS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 7, 12 September 1944, Page 2

HOW IT HAPPENS

"I- wonder how it happens she remarked to me one day, } "That some find happiness at home and others drift away?" And 1 thought about our childhood and the joys we used to know In our sitting room and parlours, in the days of long ago. Then I said: "It doesn't happen; It's deliberately planned! It's the labour of a if we only understand." Oh the mother spared no trouble that would touch the home with grace, Or add a little beauty to our humble dwelling place. All that went to make it pleasant long she laboured to provide And the glory of her purpose was to keep us, satisfied. She wante;! us to love it and to use it. and be glad f And to keep our home-life cheerful was the only thought she had. So it didn't merely happen that we nevex camc to see Any spot of greater freedom where we l'clt we'd rather be. Though at times we must have tried her as we raced the room about, For the sake of peace and quiet we were never ordered out. Though she never told her 'twas by love those fires were fanned And that happy home w T e cherished was. deliberately planned. Oh you cannot drift to beauty or find happiness by chance; The charm of home is something to be thought of in advance. R's not merely to be wished for; it's, the. labour of the years. It is, neither luck nor fortune! So where happiness appears. It hasn't merely happened. Homes that long united stand By the fathers and the, mothers are deliberately planned. —Edgar A. Guest.