ABSTRACT
It is a curious fact that nine people out of ten become happier when faced with some small misfortune. On my first visit to America, thirtyfive years ago, a train in which I was travelling became stuck in a snowdrift so that we did not arrive in New York until a great many hours after all the food on the train had been eaten up. I was beginning to expect that the passengers would draw lots as to who should be eaten, but, far from that, everybody was in the best of spirits. People who would have hated each other in ordinary circumstances found each other quite agreeable, and everybody reached an obviously exceptional level of happiness.
