"The sidewalk is hardly wide enough for three, so I will walk behind; but keep the talk going, keep the talk going, there's no time to lose, and you may be sure I will do my share." He ranged himself behind us, and straightway that stately snow-white young fellow closed up to the sidewalk alongside him, fetched him a cordial slap on the shoulder with his broad palm, and sung out with a hearty
cheeriness:
And such a luxury to him was this petting of his sorrows, that he could not bear to have any worldly
cheeriness or any grating delight intrude upon it; it was too sacred for such contact; and so, presently, when his cousin Mary danced in, all alive with the joy of seeing home again after an age-long visit of one week to the country, he got up and moved in clouds and darkness out at one door as she brought song and sunshine in at the other.
If food was scanty, we regaled ourselves with the hope of soon falling in with herds of buffalo, and having nothing to do but slay and eat." We doubt whether the genial captain is not describing the
cheeriness of his own breast, which gave a cheery aspect to everything around him.
Then, One day, like one of the prisms that you love so well, little girl, you danced into my life, and flecked my dreary old world with dashes of the purple and gold and scarlet of your own bright
cheeriness. I found out, after a time, who you were, and--and I thought then I never wanted to see you again.
The fires seemed to burn with unusual
cheeriness, and every time the girls met, their pale faces broke into smiles as they hugged one another, whispering encouragingly, "Mother's coming, dear!
It betokened the
cheeriness of an active temperament, finding joy in its activity, and, therefore, rendering it beautiful; it was a New England trait,--the stern old stuff of Puritanism with a gold thread in the web.
Harris;" and Harris gets up, and makes for the piano, with the beaming
cheeriness of a generous-minded man who is just about to give somebody something.
She walked up and down by his side, prattling merrily, and sending little gleams of
cheeriness through the gloom which girt him in.
But the good-natured self-forgetful
cheeriness and common-sense of Priscilla would soon have dissipated the one suspicion; and the modest calm of Nancy's speech and manners told clearly of a mind free from all disavowed devices.
His round, ruddy face was naturally full of
cheeriness, but the corners of his mouth seemed to me to be pulled down in a half-comical distress.
Whether it was the heartiness of the other's handshake or the unusual
cheeriness of his voice, he could not say; but something gave him the impression that a curious change had come over the Braces King.
"The tide's right, and we'll have you docked in two hours," the pilot vouchsafed, with an effort at
cheeriness. "Ring's End Basin, is it?"