This autumn, when most of us are out of sorts chafing at enforced inactivity, critical of the government, dissatisfied with the army, and in particular with its age limit of twenty years and nine months and in no way trying to conceal our misery, the few who still seem happy assume heroic proportions. We ask the secret of their cheer, and the invariable answer is their sense of humor. Just what is sense of humor? The dictionary tells us that it is "the ability to perceive the comic." But the lexicographer knew nothing of the subject. If he had, he probable wouldn't have been a lexicographer. True sense of humor goes as far beyond this definition as solid geometry beyond plain arithmetic. It consists not only in perceiving the comic, but in searching for it, and at times even creating at. Above all it deals less with the occasional laugh than it does with the constant smile.

Some few excuse themselves on the ground that they were born without a sense of humor, and if this be so, they never will have one. But with most of us the case is different; the sense of humor is there, but underdeveloped or ignored. If we are wise, we shall give our senses of humor free play these days, and the chances are that neither government, nor the army, nor college life itself will rankle any more.