"I think being a woman is like being Irish." — Iris Murdoch

Emma was so down today.  She was supposed to have a friend coming over after lunch, but the girl hadn't done her homework, so her mother wouldn't let her come.  She's still working on the homework!  To make matters worse, her best friend had asked her to sleep over yesterday, so she'd probably just now be coming home from two days of play.

I managed to cheer her up by listening to her complaint, and then by reading her the funny bits from Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods, which is the story of a hike on the Appalachian Trial. I'd been bursting into laughter all day as I read it, or exclaiming in surprise, so Emma's curiosity was already piqued.  [Is "piqued" correct there?]

Robert Ingersoll, who was a famous atheist and friend of Walt Whitman (strange combination!), used to say, "The way to be happy is to make others so," and I have to admit that it's very satisfying to see the difference in Emma's mood.