Small Troubles

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 126, 21 April 1892, Page 4

Small Troubles

It is not the big troubles of life, the sudden bereavements, or unexpected shocks that bring the wrinkles on our brows and threads* our hair with gray ; it is the wretched little minor grievances, the absurd trifles, that may be our own fault or some other person's fault, or perhaps no one's fault at all, but just a set of irritating little circumstances thatj jar our nerves, upset our tampers, j and are all the harder to bear because we don't know who or what to blame. A prize was once offered to the person who should name six of ihe most common, and most annoying of the minor grievauces of life. And the writer of the following list won it : — " To come down on a cold morning and find a very small fire." " To have your shoe lac<? break when : your husband is calling impatiently, and you have barely time to catch the train." " To have a tidy person in the house who puts all the necessaries of life out of sight." " To want a word or expression which has momentarily escaped you, and without which you cannot make your meaning plain." " To search frantically for the mateh — box, and find it — empty." " To receive a delightful invitation, when you have just accepted a stupid one for the same date." These six took the prize as being the most irritating — Canterbury Times.