Acknowledgments

The compiler makes grateful acknowledgment to the publishers and authors who have so generously given their permission to use selections from their copyrighted publications. She is especially indebted to Charles Scribner's Sons for permission to use extracts from The Poems of Henry van Dyke, as follows: one on page 152, from the poem entitled "Gratitude", one on page 165, from "The House of Rimmon", one on page 182, from "The Angler's Reveille", one on page 214, from "The Three Best Things", also, one selection from Dr. van Dyke's "Sermons to Young Men", on page 349; to Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. for selections from the poems of Sam Walter Foss, as follows: "W'en big vessels meet" from "Back Country Poems"; the one beginning "The pessimist firefly" from "Songs of the Average Man", and the one beginning "Clean out the brain's deep rubbish hole" from "Whiffs from Wild Meadows", also for extracts from the poems of Richard Burton; for "The Prayer Perfect", from The Biographical Edition of the Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, Copyright, 1913, used by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company; a selection from the poems of Frances Ridley Havergal taken by permission from Havergal's Poems published by E. P. Dutton & Co.; to G. P. Putnam's Sons for selections from

"Christus Victor", "John Murray's Landfall", and "A Flower of the Field" by Henry Nehemiah Dodge; to the Beacon Press for selections from "Thoughts for Daily Living" by Robert Collyer; to Sherman, French & Co. for selections from "The Faun and Other Poems" by Genevieve Farnell-Bond; to Little, Brown & Co. for selections from "A Round of Rimes" by Denis A. McCarthy, also extracts from the poems of Susan Coolidge; to J. L. Nichols & Co. for selections from "The Life and Works of Paul Laurence Dunbar"; to the Houghton, Mifflin Company for selections from "Poems" by John Vance Cheney, and extracts from the poems of James Russell Lowell, Edward Rowland Sill, Celia Thaxter and one poem by Josephine Preston Peabody; to Robert Loveman for selections from "Songs from a Georgia Garden" and A Book of Verses"; to Henry Victor Morgan for selections from "Songs of Victory"; to the Century Co., The Outlook Co., Out West Magazine, The Survey, Zion's Herald, The Atlantic Monthly, The Churchman, J. B. Lippincott Co., The Book News Monthly, Boston Evening Transcript, Edgar A. Guest for extracts from "Breakfast Table Chat", to Folger McKinsey, "The Benztown Bard", Samuel Ellsworth Kiser, John Kendrick Bangs, and to a host of other generous friends.

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Preface

A MULTITUDE of friends of "The Optimist's Good Morning" and "The Optimist's Good Night" have asked the compiler for a supplementary volume with the same general plan and purpose. In complying with this request, she has thought it worth while to repeat in her title the optimistic suggestion, and hopes that in " Sunlit Days" she has succeeded.

The God-idea is deeply rooted in the mind of man, and prayer is as deeply rooted in the spiritual instincts. Yet family devotions have largely gone out of fashion; not, however, because men do not need to pray, nor because they have wholly lost the sense of dependence upon divine aid, but rather because of our more complex modern life. The old hour for family devotions has simply been crowded

out.

But families do still come together at the breakfast table whether they live in country, village, or city. Here, then, is the opportunity to pause for a moment while the family group makes recognition of their divine relationships. Here is where this little book seeks to be of service. It furnishes for each day of the year a brief quotation and a word of prayer. Whether we confess it or not, we

are all God's children. To say so is natural, and to seek the Father's aid is rational. To the individual, therefore, the brief service here suggested is as important as to the family group. A pause of three minutes before starting the work of the day will give the spiritual uplift which will enable us to do better work and fight a braver battle.

FLORENCE HOBART PERIN.