Just Smile

When things first got to goin’ wrong with me, I says: “O Lord, whatever comes, keep me from gittin’ sour!”  Since then I’ve made it a practice to put all my worries down in the bottom of my heart, then try to set on the lid an’ smile.

-       Mrs. Wiggs[1]

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[1] This excerpt is from Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, a novel by Alice Hegan Rice. Alice Caldwell Hegan was born in Shelbyville, Kentucky, in 1870. She married poet and dramatist Cale Young Rice (see "New Dreams for Old: posting). She wrote over two dozen books, the most famous of which is the above-quoted Mrs. Wiggs (1902). The book, set in Louisville, Kentucky, was made into a successful play in 1903, and there were three Hollywood movie versions of it. The best known is the 1934 film that starred Pauline Lord and W. C. Fields. Several of Alice’s earlier works were translated into German, French, Danish, and Swedish. Both before and after she became a novelist she was favorably known for short stories published to magazines. She died at her home in Louisville in 1942.