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Show . She Found Out the Secret. She was very, sure that nobody liked her. She had told herself, so again and again, with a queer tightening about her heart that was like a real pain. And then sUc-JukI tossed her head and. set her lips in a defiant little smile. Nobody should know that she cared. Never! It was on her eighteenth birthday that Aunt Elizabeth made a suggestion, which caused the girl to open her eyes, and then to laugh a little. It was such 'an odd idea, so like Aunt Elizabeth! "Then I'm to 'hold up' everybody I meet till I've said something brilliant i" she observed. "Not exactly," Aunt Elizabeth smiled unmfHy. "But I've noticed that you pass your acquaintances with a mere nod or a curt 'good morning.' I wish you would try the experimorit of saying something pleasant to. .each tiifos'a thei-o is some good, reason against' it.' ' ! " ;' '; 'Tt will grow rather tiresome,"1 said the girl, and she shrugged her shoulders. - "Try it for a week," suggested Aunt Elizabeth: and, rather to her own surprise, the girl found herself promising. She came very near forgetting her pledge, when she met 5frs. Anderson on the street the next morning. morn-ing. . -In. fact she had passed with her usual "un-compromisng "un-compromisng nod. when the recollection of her promise flashed into her mind. She prided herself on being a girl of her word and she turned quickly. "How is Jimmy today?" she said, speaking out the first thing that came- into her head. There was a god deal of detail in Mrs. Anderson's Ander-son's answer. ; Jimmy had been sick with measles, and then had caught cold and beinj? worse. Mrs. Anderson poured out her story as if it were a relief to find a listener, and. as she talked on, that particular par-ticular listener found herself more' interested than she would have believed possible in Jimmy and his mother. She said that she had some old scrap-books scrap-books which Jimmy might enjoy looking o-er, and Mrs. Anderson flushed and thanked her with more gratitude than the slight 'favor' seemed to warrant. At the next corner was Cissy Baily, and the girl wondered if her promise covered the washer woman's wo-man's daughter and people, of that sort. But she did not let herself wonder very long. "It was very kind of you to bring home the clothes so early last week, Cissy. I was in a hurry for that shirt-waist." Cissy Baily did not know-what to answer. She smiled in an embarrassed way, and looked up and then down. But the s'r whom nobody liked had seen something in the uplifted eyes which warmed her heart' and made ..that one-sided conversation something to remember. The day went by, and she did not find opportu- nity to say anything very brilliant'. She stopped Mrs. White to ask her if would like to read tho j book she had just finished, and she patted Barbara Smith's soft cheek as she inquired if the new baby sister had grown at all. When she could think of nothing else, she said. "Hasn't this loon a beauti--ful day!" And her earnestness rather "surprised some people who had .not, had opportunities for realizing that there was something. unusual about the day. . . . ' . By the time the week was over the girl whom nobody liked had learned a valuable lesson. She. had found out that hearts respond . . to cordiality' and kindness just as the strings of one musical instrument vibrate in unison with the chord in another. an-other. It was not a new discovery, since long ago it was written in a certain wise Book: "A man that hath friends must show himself friendly," yet this is one of the truths that' each person must rediscover re-discover on her own account. And the girl who was learning to love everyone, and was-tasting tho i joy of king loved, thanked (rod that she had not' waited any longer before findings out-the wonderful wonder-ful secret for herself. New World.' . 4 r |