The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-04-17
COnyalescence.

CoNvALEsCENcE is a delightful border
land between death and life, Beulah in
which you love to linger, whose grapes
go down sweetly. 1t is a condition in
which perfect consciousness of existence
is combined with an absolute negation OF
duties. You know that you are nuisance,
cumberer of the ground,
" Whom none can love, whom none can thank,
Creations blot, creations blank"
and you do not care. The furnace fires
may go out, the wine. run dry, the
tank overflow, the barrel of meal waste,
and the cruise of oil fail; but you are GER
tain that your thermometer will be cared
for, that your sherry-glass will never be
empty, and you lie in fine though feeble
disdain for all these carking cares. Peo-
pie cannot find things: let them hunt.
The draymen are swearing outside, but it
is no business of yours to show them how
to get the coal into the cellar. The world
is going on and you have no responsible
ity whatever about its goings on. This
is the true Joy of convalescence. This is
the way to make illness a means of grace.
Ifyou go caring for other people, you
might as well be well. But to lie in tran
quill and luxurious inertia, absolutely
devoid of energy, without purpose,
without conscience, without thought,
wholly selfish, and unpricked in
your selfishness-iti is no mean paradise.
Life is so full that it is an exquis-
ite satisfaction for once, and for a
time, to find it empty. The hours and
the days lapse langilidly, and you have
had fortnight of bliss in the process and
blank in the memory, and by that time,
ten to one, your soul is astir again-but the
pause was delicious.
Hungry, did you say? There are terri.
rNFf ,n1 xx,hi iab
| ignorance forbade to moiSten, and fever
wasted frames which food might not up.
build. Who has not his story to tell ol
some convalescent ancestor who escaped
his keeper and devoured clandestinely
but with impunity, whole mince-pie be
fore he was discovered by horror-smitteI
friends? But we have changed all that
The doctors nowadays are a friendly folk
and prophesy smooth things. Water
Yes, indeed, as much as you like. Milk
The more the better. Eat whatever yol
wish, and whenever you choose, and a!
long as you can. The Old School stant
around astonished; but, strong in thu
law. you eat steadfastly on with milo
convalescent defiance, and climb steadily
back to strength. Against such proc
there is no law. And the neighbors sent
in their Lest canned strawberries and ap
pie iellies and currant wine, and you swal
low them down with only moderate graf
itude, not to say placid Indifference. 81
far from being in "A hurry to go back int
the world again, you want nothing but tt
be let alone. The turmoil, the eagerness
the busy-ness seem to you so aimless. a
and b and c go by every day to meet tn,
morning trains. What folly! as if it mad
any difference whether they met the trail
or not. But your eXclamation-point is
very small one. You are not to be dis
turbed by deep emotions of any sort
The din of the outside world comes soft
ly to your ears. Since the din is not un
musical, very well; but the world nigh
as wisely be silent. Why should you re
up? 1t is easier to stay in bed. But VIII,
aoants to be strong? 1t is just as comfort
able to be weak.-GaiL Hamilton in Har
per's Bazaar.