The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.

American novelist Louisa May Alcott is best known for her 1868 novel “Little Women,” but her prolific body of work also includes “Jack and Jill: A Village Story” (1880), excerpted here. Alcott’s riff on the old nursery rhyme follows two children severely injured in a sledding accident. The novel details their healing process and the moral lessons they and their friends learn along the way. Alcott penned this particular morsel of wisdom about a brazen friend in the group, Molly, who realizes the importance of relishing the small things in life after her father gives her some of her late mother’s small relics. The quote reminds us that harmony and happiness are far easier to find when we learn to appreciate the humble marvels of even the seemingly mundane facets of life.