Metropolis weekly gazette. (Metropolis, Ill.) 1???-19??, 1914-01-23
b|GNESS OF LIFE
Two Old Lovers Look On at the
Waters of Strife and Gain
Wisdom.
EN- MAY c. RlNeWALT.


expectations?'
My superintendent. Eben!"
AS happy and wonderrapt as chill
dren they sat side by side upon the
sand watching the waves romp at
their feet-the white-haired, wrinkled
little old man and the white-haired.
wrinkled little old woman with that
family likeness to each other some
times seen IN husband and wife who
have lived and loved together many
married years.
Before we came thought had an
idea how it looked" she went on after
a little break of intimate silence be.
tween them From pictures in maya
zines, you know, and souvenir post
cards folks had sent us. But they all
was only ships of samples like you
get from mail order store. and
here" she held out her arms to the
wide sweep of sea in front Of them
here there's the goods itself!
Whole beautiful bolts of it that scis-
sors haven't ever cut into"
YES" said Eben with a character
what takes hold OF you from the start.
The bigness of it. The 'boundless
waters as the saying is. Look how
they stretch on and on without any
stop to 'em! No stop, leastways, till
the sky shuts down sudden and shoyes
'em back. reckon that's what makes
the waves, mother. The sky, way of
60 ch. IN
down on the waters and showing 'em
back"
His little pleasantly only skinned
the surface of her consciousness
with a wee ripple of an answering
smile-but the word "bigness" was
plummet that sank straight to the
bottom of her thought.
The bigness of everything. Eben.
and the dazzlingness," she exclaimed,
her eyes bright, glow on each wrin-
killed. cheek. Not only the ocean and
the beach, but the hotel-its rooms SO
big and splendid it gives you that all
over feeling, as though you was living
in the same house with a sunset. and
the women with their beautiful
dresses and the wonderful way of fix
ing their hair, and--and the automo-
biles coming and going outside, and
the band playing indoors while you're
eating your meals. The bigness OF
life. tell you, Eben, 1t brings home
your own littleness till the sense of
II makes you ache. The little years
behind you living In a little town
among little people, doing nothing but
little things, and the little years ahead
-oh, Eben, now we know different,
don't see how we're ever going to
stand Live Oaks Center again! And
more than half our weeks gone al
ready"
The next day brought another phase
OF bigness to ponder over, for In the
night between with the sudden rush
of an angry sea a storm had swept
crashing in upon the waves, and after
breakfast when everybody hurried
eagerly out on to the glass-inclosed
veranda overlooking the ocean. the
little old couple sat watching the roll
and rage 81 the giant breakers in
spellbound rapture.
Suddenly, in the same GREATNESS
fash as lightning springs from out
a storm cloud and strikes fire to the
earth, the whole crowded piazza
jumped to its feet
Around nearby promontory, lit
tie fishing boat-rock-riven, water
swept in it's last death throes-had
tossed into sight.
Out into the roar of the storm ran
the little old couple with the rest OF
the crowd--men and women needless
of the rain that soaked them to the
skin, to the wind that beat down upon
their heads with fierce flap of wing.
The life-saving station was a mile far
Their up the beach. BESIDES, no boat
could be launched In such sea. The
one hope--the throwing OF lifeline
before it was too late.
She's gone TO smash already, No,
by George, she's up again." The men
screamed to each other, pitting their
pigmy voices against the shrek of the
sea. This way with the rope. fellows
quick"
A score of eager hands seized upon
the coil Of rope brought from nearby
baIhhcnse. pauntlsssly the men
pressed forward With all the might
of puny human muscle tried in vain
10 hurl an end over and beyond the
catch of the incoming breakers.
Then crash of wave, drenching
leap Of spray, a hideous crunching
sound. and cast high upon the beach
scattered bits of spIintered wreckage
and a mans motionless, lifeless form.
There came sudden break in the
fury Of wind and wave, a softer fall
of rain, and like child who had
dashed cherished toy to pieces in a
bit of passion and was now repentant,
the storm turned it's back upon the
broken life on the sands and sulked
out to sea.
a bunch OF men lifted the dead body
upon a stretcher made OF weather
stained sail and carried it home--to
Eone Of half dozen poverty-pinched
little flshermen's houses ten minutes
walk down the beach.
The rest--some stunned and silent,