--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Frost, Grace Ingles collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 8 number: 12 published: 1905-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Grace Ingles Frost, "The Violet’s Mission: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 12 (October 1905): 905.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0812unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0812unse start_page: 905 end_page: 905 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0812unse publication_year: 1905 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1905, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Violet’s Mission: A Poem — DON'T GROWL!—DON'T WHINE! 905 tion of, and rejoicing over, the six good things with which it has pleased the Almighty to bless us? There is one old lady in Ogden whom it does me good to meet. "Well sister, how are you today?" "Oh, midlin', I'm 84, and I've had many blessings in the House of God; and I've got my second sight. I can see to read without glasses. I do my own work, and I'm well!" And the old lady smiles and looks so cheerful that it makes one feel some years younger, after a conversation with her. How much better it is to be like this good sister than it is to have to Jisten to a catalogue of aches, pains and troubles that make one feel ten years older, after listening to a five-minute, tire- some complaint. You want to cross the street whenever you see a chronic whiner. If you can't avoid the meeting of such a one, how natural it is to bethink you of an engagement, and beg to be excused. Let us try to be cheerful and not make our friends tired- Ogden, Utah. THE VIOLET'S MISSION- (For the Improvement Era.) Down in an old time garden, with flow'rs of richest hue, Unnoticed by its neighbors, a tiny blossom grew. One day, on the breeze, was wafted a fragrance, fresh and sweet; The flow'rs there looked about them, and saw it at there feet. Just a modest violet, that seemed to them so plain, They paid it no attention nor thought of it again. A maid came to the garden, with her, one rich in gold, Who bargained for the blossoms, to him they all were sold, All except the violet, the maiden held it dear: She sent it as a messenger a suff'ring heart to cheer. The violet's proud neighbors, adorned a palace hall; But the tiny flow'r's mission was greatest of them all. Grace Ingles Frost. Salt Lake City, Utah.