Article December 1, 1934 Issue

Happiness

[Written Especially for Children]

HAZEL A. WOOD

ONCE there was a little girl who went to the Christian Science Sunday School. she was usually a happy little girl and loved her playmates. she shared her playthings, took good care of her kitten, and tried to be unselfish because she knew that God is Love. But sometimes when disappointments came to Patty, she found it hard to be sweet and grateful.

Now Patty went to school and was just learning to read. How she did love that school In the morning she could hardly wait to kiss her mother good-by and run off to school. So, one morning when Patty awakened feeling quite ill and could not start to school, she was much disappointed. Instead of knowing the truth about God's love for man, as she had been taught in Sunday school, she became impatient and kept saying: "But, mother, why am I this way? Why can't I go to school?" Her mother talked to her lovingly, told her that God had never stopped caring for her, and that sweetness and patience would help her to see this.

But Patty still felt so disappointed that she couldn't stop sighing about it. And later, when a Christian Science practitioner came to see her and talk to her about God, she was still very cross. So, of course, Patty didn't feel very well. In fact, she seemed to feel worse. And so, for several days she had to stay in bed, until one bright morning she said suddenly, "Mother, I have decided I might as well be happy." And a few moments later her mother heard a little song coming from Patty's room, and then she asked for her Bible and Science and Health, and said: "I should like to do something for you, mother. I wish to read you the ninety-first Psalm." So she read this beautiful, comforting Psalm to her mother, and as she almost knew it by heart, that wasn't hard to do. And because she let happiness into her thought, and wanted to share that happiness with someone else, suddenly she felt well. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." That very day she was out of bed, and very soon she was back in school again, for, as Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 494), "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need."

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