The Best Bank.
"I know a bank" that never fails. Investments there bring forty per cent, sixty per cent, a hundred per cent. It deals in stock that always pays dividends, in bonds that grow constantly more valuable. Its gold is of the purest, its silver unalloyed. This bank is so solid that the bankruptcy of Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, and all the Rothschilds would not affect it. "I know a bank" that is never the same, spring, summer, autumn, or winter, and yet it is always sound as Gibraltar. There are frequent runs on this bank, but no one doubts its perfect solvency. The bank examiner is always delighted. Its resources appear inexhaustible. It is backed by absolutely immeasurable assets. "I know a bank" which is as gracious to the poorest as to the richest, and which welcomes the child as gladly as the prosperous adult. "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows."
Chickens in Your Dooryard.
A certain lady of original ideas has established a brood of young chickens in her dooryard. She has sacrificed to gravel a circle of the grass, surrounded the chickens with wire netting, added a wooden box on its side, and there they are, a constant pleasure to all the members of the household, from grandfather to grandchild. Every chicken has its name, the characteristics of each are known, and one of the delights of the day is to throw in lettuce leaves and watch the scramble. The life histories of "Napoleon," "Teddy," "Mary Lyon," and the rest are added to the history of that family.
That is the way to become a part of God's wonderful creation: bring it near, bit by bit. Some of it, like mountains and sunsets, must be observed with awe from a distance, but much of it may be brought into our dooryards and so into our lives. Thus the pot of heliotrope on the bookkeeper's desk, the tomato growing on the kitchen table, the family of snails under observation in the library, even (why not?) the lordly shaft of Indian corn in a corner of the parlor! Do not hold the natural world off out of sight, down back of the barn. Bring God's wonders up into your dooryards.