Watauga Democrat

Which Is Woman's Happiest Hour?

This is a very searching question, and the happiest hour depends upon which woman it is. The difference would lie, not only in the experiences but in the taking of them. What to one woman would be the deepest and highest might to another be quite incomprehensible. When is a woman most likely to be most happy? It must be when she is young, for joy belongs to youth; sober contentment and gentle placidity are the handmaids of middle age. But she must not be too young after all, for she must know something of sorrow to be able to recognize the face of joy. I am curious to know whether a woman into whose life love has never entered can ever be happy. What we call happy. She may have found in the quiet garden, of which content keeps the keys; or she may be reconciled to her fate, and console herself by thinking how much better off she is than some of her neighbors, but I honestly think that real happiness comes to a woman only hand in hand with love. When she begins to feel that with one man in it the room is full, and empty when he is gone, no matter how many others may remain, she begins to be tremulously and deliciously happy. Her very soul hungers within her for some dear certainty, and when that comes, when her troth is plighted—perhaps nine women out of ten if asked to define the happiest hour or moment of their lives, would give an answer based upon some experience of the affection. Is it not so my sisters? I would like to hear from you. I think there is no joy so deep, so high, so all-pervading in a woman's life as the joy of love. The question however is a difficult one to answer. There are so many different natures. That which would be extreme happiness to one woman might be only a mild delight to another. Some for example have a maternal instinct more strongly developed than others, and for those the vocal small cry of their first born must cause an uplifting of the heart that no other feeling on earth can outdo; all in that supreme moment is forgotten. The ambitious woman must find her best hour when she has attained the summit of her hopes. To the woman standing over the sick bed that contains the one being dearest to her on earth, can there be an hour more rife with thankful happiness than when the physician declares that there is hope; hope that the adored one will be given back to her? Love, that "Great Master" has more to do with a woman's sweetest hour than anything else on earth. To love, and to feel one's self beloved, that is indeed to know the best of life. Francis E. Willard's happiest hour is the one which is least conscious of herself and most uplifted into holy thoughts and purposes, and her idea of happiness is painless, constant