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MISS HARRIET'S CORNERS

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 12, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 48.

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MISS HARRIET'S CORNERS.

'ROUND the restaurant table sat an agreeable little company, composed of some gentlemen, a lady, and a girl with a charming face and vivacious ways. Meal and conversation were proceeding pleasantly, until—the waiter upset a cup of chocolate in the girl's lap!
After an interval, during which chairs were thrust back, napkins flourished, and exclamations launched, the frightened waiter doing his best to repair damages, the flurry subsided somewhat and the party reseated itself.
"My dear Harriet," cried the lady, ruefully, "your pretty suit is ruined!"
"O, there are more in the shops," was the gay rejoinder.
The waiter having got a smile from the heroine of the accident, went off in a dazed condition. The gentlemen were staring silently.
"Now look here, Miss Harriet," began the man with white hair, recovering first, "tell us how you did it!"
"Did what?" mischievously.
"Kept your equanimity, when most women would have—well, no matter! I was looking right at you when it happened, and the corners of your mouth went back instantly in a smile and—"
"O, did you notice that?" asked the girl, suddenly interested. Then she checked herself, coloring. But the others scented a story and insisted, until Miss Harriet yielded, laughing.
"Well, since Mr. Pierce is so discerning—but really there is nothing to tell, you know. I had a new hat sent home once, the night before Easter. I was to sing in church, and that hat was the prettiest thing! O, don't be frightened,"—she laughed merrily,—"I won't describe it. In fact I never got very familiar with it, anyhow; for, when I left my room a moment, my puppy found it and had a personal interview with it.
"No, I didn't shake the puppy—he was a dear. I just dropped into a chair and contemplated the ruins.
"But presently I caught sight of my face in the dressing-table mirror, and—I forgot even the ruins! I was so shocked that I said right out, 'Is that you, Harriet Corey?' Why it was the most woe-begone, forbidding countenance—my mouth made a perfect capital U, turned upside down.
"It came to me that that was how I probably looked whenever things went wrong.
"Well, I experimented immediately. I made the corners of my mouth move back and up, and I decided that a presentable face was better than an Easter hat. And I concluded right there that when things went wrong, I'd at least see that the corners of my mouth stayed up.
"Really, you've no idea," she finished ingeniously, "how it helps when horrid things happen. You just can't feel cross and blue if you keep your corners right."
Miss Harriet, absorbed in her narrative, had been unaware of admiring eyes. Now her cheeks began to redden.
"It's better than controlling corners in wheat!" murmured Mr. Pierce.—Christian Worker.