Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/209

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THE MANTLE OF CHARITY

IT is the one garment the fashion of which never changes. The years may go and come, and yet she who cloaks herself in this mantle is at once happy herself and the giver of happiness. In cut it never alters. It is always large and full, so that it can envelop those who are unhappy and give them warmth and comfort. Like the cloak worn by the prince in the fairy tale, it is invisible to all but those whose eyes are made clear by faith. It is the garment that I would like my girls to wear. It is true that much patience and much self-denial are required before this cloak is put on, as it should be, for all time; but once assumed, the amount of joy to be gotten from it, and the happy heart-beats to the wearers of it, cannot possibly be overestimated.