OPTIMIST'S CREED

 #1~ To be so strong that nothing can disturb MY peace of mind.

#2~ To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person I meet.

#3~ To make all MY friends feel that there is something in them.

#4~ To look at the sunny side of everything and make MY optimism come true.

#5~ To think of the best; to work only for the best; and expect only the best.

#6~ To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about MY own.

#7~ To forget the mistakes of the past, and press on to greater achievements for the future.

#8~ TO WEAR A CHEERFUL COUNTENANCE AT ALL TIMES AND GIVE EVERY CREATURE I MEET A SMILE.

#9~ To give so much time to the improvement of MYSELF that I have no time to criticize others.

#10~ To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

#11~ To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds.

#12~To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is me.

 

 Jennie Bannon's role as an administrator of the Bannon Estate:

page 155:

"You're goin' to be lead horse after I'm gone," the old man said, bluntly, "But your ma is goin' to hold a check rein on you. I ain't sayin' you couldn't handle what I got better'n most. It's that I been worried sometimes that you'd let a dollar outshine what it'll buy. Mother's to hold you down."

 Buck didn't answer. His mother stirred in the rocker.

"Tell him how, Joe," she said. "It's best said out."

The old man nodded. "She'll own what I leave, boy," he said. "She'll own it in her lifetime for her and the rest of you. Ain't nobody to get hurt in the split and ain't no one to get more'n the other, high nor low."

page 166:

"You to straw boss," she went on, "but me to ride herd an' use a check rein when I figured it was time."

from the July 4, 1901 HUNTSVILLE JOURNAL