paper basket put thoughtfully out of reach by the janitor did more to disturb his equanimity than a dozen difficult customers would have done.
In my undergraduate day I saw an otherwise well balanced instructor,—an experienced middle aged gentleman,—thrown into a frenzy because his hat dropped twice from the hook on which he was trying to hang it. He would have met a crisis in life with composure and complete placidity.
Perhaps when we learn to estimate men's characters justly it will not be wholly from the great crises which they meet, but by the trifling irritations as well which they are able to overlook or to control.
August
