Friendliness.....

Friendliness, it seems to me, is an art; and not everyone who smiles and says, "Friend, friend," possesses it. It is an affair of the heart touched by imagination and founded on a sweet and ancient instinct quite unaccountable to reason or logic. "They are my friend. I like them," is adequate explanation of this inexplicable fact.

A warm friendship puts value and meaning into life. Until one knows an understanding friend, nothing they do is of the least consequence to them. What good in building if there is no eager foot to cross the threshold of our achievement? What pleasure can there be in creating beauty if there be no appreciative spirit to welcome it? What could fire us to further effort if there were no warming hearty cheers to stir the ashes of our spent dreams?

Behind each great achievement in this world there are usually two people, the worker and their friend. To the friend who listened and advised and encouraged, to them who poured out their own spirit that another's might flower in full glory, to the silent one in the background who put the breath of life in the other's creation-to them honour is due.

How shall the friendly being acquire a friend? Not by looking the field over with calculating eye and deciding. "Such a one would help me in my business." Friendship is unselfish to the power of selflessness; and that, you must know, becomes the most terrific power in this world. Power enough to move continents.