Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1911-05-13
THE SILENCE
It Deadened Two Lives For
|, Many Dreary Years.
BY JOHN BARTON OXFORD.
BY JOHN BARTON OXFORD.

room. In the foreground. between two
walls OF water which reared them
selves on either side In defiance of all
natural laws. fat, bearded, complacent.
Btalked herculean Moses. Behind him
trailed the children of Israel. looking
very like a mob of German peasants,
while on the horizon the Egyptian
hosts--sadly out OF perspective-were
threatened on every side by curling
waves OF gigantic proportions.
1t had hung there In the same place
for years. but 1t was only since the
day he had been brought in from the
barn, his right side useless from a
stroke OF paralysis. that Daniel Crosby
had given the ancient, smoke streak
ed woodcut more than passing
thought. He had been aware of its ex-
istence In a vaguely familiar way. If
1t had been taken down he would have
missed II. He knew from the title un-
derneath 1t was supposed to represent
the passage of the Red sea by the
children of Israel, but heretofore he
had never taken the trouble to notice
further detail. save that 1t was yellow
by smoke from the adjacent kitchen.
But now it was different. AS he lay
there on the bed practically helpless
and the June days went by in monoto-
nous succession he found himself ex-
aiming the picture minutely during
the long, wakeful daylight hours when
the breeze fluttered the chintz curtains
at the windows and the bees droned
among the blossoms Of the syringa
bushes just outside.
1t came In time to have an unwhole-
some fascination for him. He began
to wonder just how many children of
Israel were represented In that cut,
and to satisfy himself on this point he
tried time and again to count them, be-
ginning with the two .patriarchal gen.
tlemen just behind Moses, but always
at the thirty fourth the heads resolved
themselves into blurred mass that
defied further enumeration. Day after
day, hour after hour. he counted pa
tiently, and steadily his anger at his
own helplessness In the matter and his
resentment of the blurred heads grew
stronger. Try as he would to divert
his mind to other things. 1t always re-
turned pertinaciously to the picture
and the all absorbing question of how
many children of Israel there would be
If he could once succeed in counting
them all. He grew by slow degrees to
hate that picture, yet with this hate
the fascination was no whit lessened.
Indeed, the stronger grew his hate
the more frequent became his count
f,1n Mt los ha he.
know no peace of mind until the pic
ture was taken from the room.
1t seemed the simplest of matters to
have picture removed from the walls
of bedroom, but In Daniel Crosby's
case there were complications. and
these complications lay In the fact that
the only person to whom he could sug-
gest that the picture be taken down
was his wife, and between Crosby and
his wife there had existed fourteen
years of stubborn. unyielding silence.
1t had come as the climax of numer-
GUS petty differences. They had wran-
gled long and iercely. At the end of
1t Abby Crosby had burst into flood
of bitter, rebellious tears.
you can rest assured of one thing.
DAM Crosby" she had sobbed wretch
eddy. Il won't never. never open my
mouth to you again 8 long s live"
He had smiled In superior fashion.
80 be it," he had acquiesced. It'll
suit me perfectly. An I'll see to it
| you amt troubled with any remarks
from me-"
And from that bitter day, fourteen
| years before, they had lived together In
| silence with never so much as n word
| passing between them: Not even this
| paralysis which had stricken him In
| his advancing years could shake the
stubborn pride of either of them. He
had wondered vaguely that day the
| neighbors had borne him into the house
and laid him on the bed If perchance
| In the excitement of the moment she
would forget herself and speak to him.
and he was rather proud of her self
| restraint when she had not.
Silently she prepared his meals and
brought them In to him; silently she
massaged him and used the battery as
the doctor had directed. He watched
her narrowly day by day, all his long
| ing for companionship in these hours
| OF his helplessness carefully concealed
beneath d cold exterior
IF any one speaks first it'll be her."
he told himself over and over,
| So day after day as his wife came
silently into the room and went silent
| ly out Daniel lay feebly lingering the
sheets with his left hand. striving to
conjure up some scheme which might
| rid him of the troublesome Israelites
who refused to be counted above the
thirty-fourth. At last In desperation
he had been counting, counting all day
long--he decided to take the matter
into his own hands. an the early dusk
| when he heard Abby go out the back
door to shut up the barn and the hem
houses for the night he managed. by
the use of his sound left arm. to slide
himself out Of the bed on to the floor.
Slowly. painfully, he contrived to
| reach the corner where an old cane with
crook handle leaned In the angle Of
the walls. Then with indomitsble pa
thence he wormed his way along the