A SEARCH AFTER HAPPINESS. CXVII. A SEARCH AFTER HAPPINESS. "HO 285 OW happy I'll be to-morrow!" exclaimed little Slyder Downehylle, in anticipation of Christmas, -"O, how happy I shall be to-morrow!" 2. Could n't you contrive to be happy a little now?" replied Uncle John, who had learned somewhat to distrust anticipation and its gorgeous promises. 3. "Happy now, Uncle John!" retorted little Slyder Downehylle, rather contemptuously, "happy now! what with, I should like to know, what shall I be happy with - now? Where are the cakes, the candy, the pies,where the hobby-horse that somebody 's going to give me, and all the Christmas gifts? How I wish to-morrow was here! What a long day,- what a long evening,what a great while I've got to sleep!" 4. Little Slyder Downehylle became quite cross, and Uncle John whistled. Twenty-four hours afterwards, little Slyder Downehylle was still more cross; he had been happy with candy, with cakes, and with pies, until he was very uncomfortable indeed; he had been happy with toys until he had quarrelled with his little companions, and strewed the room with broken playthings; he had been happy with his hobby-horse until he got a fall. 5. "O, what a stupid day!" said little Slyder Downehylle. "I wish to-morrow would come, - I'll be so happy at Aunt Betsy's." 6. It was always so with the unfortunate Slyder Downehylle. Throughout life he wanted something to be happy with; and, strangely enough, it universally occurred, that, when he had obtained the thing, it did not prove to be exactly the thing he wanted. His expectations were never realized, and he was, therefore, constantly in a state of disappointment. Unlucky Slyder Downehylle! It was deplorable, too, that such should be the case, for Slyder Downehylle was anxious to be happy, he was always looking forward to be happy, for something to be happy with 7. At school, he was always thinking how happy he would be on Saturday afternoon; but then sometimes it rained on Saturday afternoon, or his companions would not do as he wished them to do, or it may be that although he had toiled hard for pleasure, -and the toil for pleasure is often the severest of work, he returned home weary, dispirited, and out of temper. Of course, it was unavoidable that his pleasure should be postponed until some other Saturday afternoon. 8. If Slyder Downehylle went a-fishing, why, a treacherous bank would often give way; and then pray who can possibly be happy when dripping wet with his clothes on? Nobody but poodles. What felicity is there in losing one's shoe in a swamp? Then, if Slyder Downehylle went skating, it not unfrequently happened that he cried with cold. What a strange arrangement it is not to have the best of skating on the warmest days! 9. The young Downehylle, finding that happiness eluded his grasp while a boy, made sure of throwing a noose over its head when he should be a man. May not a man do as he pleases?-go to bed when he pleases, and get up when he pleases? eat what he pleases, and drink what he pleases? A man is not compelled to learn lessons. All his afternoons are Saturday afternoons; his holidays last all the year round. Who would not be a man? “I want to be a man!" cried Slyder Downehylle, with impatience. 10. And Slyder Downehylle was a man at last, though, on the whole, it must be confessed that he did not derive the satisfaction from the circumstance that he had been led to expect. 11. In theorizing on happiness, he thought it was, to some degree, vehicular, — that, like respectability, it was to be found in a gig if it were to be found anywhere. So he bought him a sulky and a fast trotter, -a mile in two minutes, or thereabouts. What could escape a man who followed so rapidly? 12. "Aha! that's it!" muttered Slyder Downehylle. A SEARCH AFTER HAPPINESS. 287 as he tugged at the reins, and went whizzing along the turnpike in a cloud of dust, passing everything on the road, and spreading consternation among the pigs, the ducks, and the chickens. 13. "Now I'm happy," said Slyder Downehylle, as he stood on the portico of the "Cottage," and saw every eye fixed with admiration on his establishment, as the boy led his horse and sulky through the crowd of vehicles. "That's it at last!" 14. "There, let him go!" said he, tossing a half-dollar to the hostler's deputy. Mr. Downehylle's sulky flew like lightning across the lawn. "Splendid!" ejaculated the spectators. The dogs barked; the colored gentlemen grinned from ear to ear. There was quite a sensation at the "Cottage." 15. That's it, at last!" said Slyder Downehylle, triumphantly. But he forgot that existence, short as it is, cannot be crowded all into the exhilarating moment of a "start." He wished to shave the gate-post, in his curricular enthusiasm, to astonish the natives with his charioteering skill. Mr. Downehylle was out in his calculation by about the sixteenth part of an inch. He was on a lee shore. 16. A cloud of splinters went up and came down again. "There is but a Frenchman the more in France," said a Bourbon on the restoration. It was also quite evident that there was a sulky the less in existence. 17. That's not it, after all," murmured Mr. Slyder Downehylle, as he was carried into the "Cottage" for surgical aid. 18. The by-standers, lately so full of admiration, ungraciously placed their thumbs upon their noses, and wriggled their fingers. Greatness always falls when it meets with an upset. 19. What could you expect from a fellow that holds his elbows so when he drives?" was the general remark. When we are down, every one can see the reason why. The world is always full of sagacity, after the event. He 20. He was puzzled. What could be the matter? was a man, a man of cash, money in both pockets; but yet Slyder Downehylle was not happy,-not particularly happy. On the contrary, striking an average, he was, for the most part, decidedly miserable. He yawned about all the morning; he was not hungry in the afternoon; he was seldom sleepy at night. Vexatious! 21. "There's something I want," thought Slyder Downehylle; "what it is, that's more than I can tell, but it is something to be happy with. What other people get for the purpose, that they go grinning about so, I cannot dis cover." 22. It was not exactly kind in Uncle John and Aunt Betsy, though they thought it was, to bequeath their savings to Slyder Downehylle. Their legacy perplexed him sadly. He discovered, in a very short time, that money is not in itself, notwithstanding the fact that it is generally known as the "one thing needful," the material of happiness. But he was clear in his own mind that this was something to be got with money. Still, however, he could not find it, that "something to be happy with," -that cake, that candy, that sugar-ice, that hobby-horse. When his game was run down, why, it was only a fox, after all. 23. It was in vain that he intermingled his pleasures, took them in alternation, over ate in the morning, and over drank in the evening, or reversed the process, turning the bill of fare upside down. It came all to the same thing in the end. 24. Slyder Downehylle had never tried gambling; but, on the recommendation of his friend, he did try it, and thought that he rather liked it. In short, it improved upon acquaintance. The "something to be happy with " had, to all appearance, been found. But the top of our speed brings the end of the race. He who moves most A SEARCH AFTER HAPPINESS. 289 rapidly is the soonest at the close of his career. Fortune is fickle, and Slyder Downehylle, in his zeal to pile enjoyment upon enjoyment, to be happy, if possible, with had, unluckily, a habit of drink several things at a time, ing deep; and, as his head became warm, the "cool" amounts in his pockets melted away. 25. Slyder Downehylle was now a cashless man; his researches after felicity had not only proved unsuccessful, but had left him without the means of future progression. He was swamped, as it were, in sight of port. 26. He is sadly emaciated, and in all respects considerably the worse for wear; while a hollow cough indicates that his physical capabilities have proved inadequate to the requirements of his method of employing life, and are fast dropping to pieces. Slyder Downehylle is consequently more miserable than ever. He is troubled with doubts. Perhaps he may have proceeded upon an error; perhaps the principle — the high-pressure principle — of his action was not the right one. 27. It may be that excitement is not happiness; that our pleasures are fleeting in proportion to their intensity; that, indeed, if "life be a feast," the amount of satisfaction to be derived from it is rather diminished than increased by swallowing the viands hastily, and by having a free recourse to condiments; and that a physical economy is as wise and as necessary to well-being as economy of any other kind. 28. He is almost led to suppose that his "something to be happy with" is a fallacy; he never could hold it within his grasp; and he inclines to the belief that a man probably does well to have a home in himself, that he may not always be compelled to run abroad for recreation, or to appeal to his senses to give vivacity to the hour. If it were his luck to begin again But that hollow cough! Our experiences oft reach their climax too late; yet others may learn from the example of Slyder Downehylle. Joseph C. Neal. |