The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-12-11
CHAPTER XIV-Continued

|
/ fell in the snow. f1oundered aim.
lessly in the broken crust.
When / came back to realization the
vision was gone. Only the snow, shot
through with Its thin mists of light,
fell on forever
Was l freezing? The thought prod
ded me to consciousness. L drew a
hand from my mitt and thrust 1t
against my face. The fingers were
| warm. The skin of my forehead would
+, wrinkle. was able to wriggle my
toes in my boots. No, was not freez-
Ing. My troubles were of the mind;
my bodily engines were functioning
! properly. / got the wind over
my right shoulder and pressed on.
Jean wanted me to keep her guess
/ Ing. That was the easy, slangy way
of putting it. Poetic license, she had
! called it. What she meant was that
! must always have something in re-
serve; some mysterious corner Of my
self into which she had not explored.
! Something to keep up the sense of
| mystery, the spirit of adventure, in
which romance is born, without which
romance must die. No doubt she was
right. After all, why should she marry
me? What was I more than a biped
| beast Of burden, an animal designed
/ to eat, sleep, labor, and reproduce
! itself? +. Spool was something
more than that. Was / wise to inter-
rupt them at all? Why not leave them
alone?
! 1t was while I wrestled with the
thought of a great remuneration that
/ the light broke about me. l was sure
Jean preferred me to Spool. 1t was
In those qualities that were not animal
! that she preferred him. 1t was for me,
therefore, by all means, to delay her
decision, and then to set about deliber-
ately to develop the qualities in which
/ was at a disadvantage. l must read.
These idle winter months gave me the
very opportunity to read, and l cursed
myself that so many weeks had slipped
! by unimproved. What to read? l
had my old school books and a Bible
little else Still, if one knew his Bible
| if l were to read up some book in 1t,
develop simple philosophy out of it,
enveigle Jean into an. argument, and
best her, that would be keeping her
guessing, wouldn't it?
could borrow books from Spool 1t
was a strange sidelight on my feel
ings toward Spool that even at this
moment and for this purpose there
seemed nothing unnatural in the
thought that l should borrow books
from him. Other neighbors might have
books; one never can tell. Most peo-
pie remain unread, not from lack of
books, but from lack of application.
I There was Reverend Locke. l would
, make an excuse to town, and would
borrow books from him. L would even
spend few of my hard-earned dollars
on magazines, or on membership in a
mail order library. OF all this Jean
was to know nothing. l would keep
her guessing.
l trudged on in mood akin to cheer
fitness. | had made my decision. |
had stepped out of an old world into
new one Something which must
have lain dormant all these years
] awoke and thrilled me with the pos
sibilities of what might become Life
for me was no longer a thing of the
body, which is death, but thing of
the mind and spirit, which are eternal
And yet. In Imagination / al
lowed myself to feel jeans hair brush
ing my cheek.
Presently something waved to me
out of the mist. l stopped, with eyes
intent Undoubtedly something was
waving to me out of the mist "Jean
Jeanr' / called, but there was no an.
swer l moved toward it eagerly, and
suddenly the mystery was made clear
1t was great sunfiower, clothed in
hoary frost, nodding in the wind.
smiled to myself at its almost spectral
appearance; then glancing ahead saw
another and another and another; a
whole row of them. This was Spoof's
These were the sunfiowers which he
had planted. Spoof's shack must be
nearby Surely, there to the left, was
duller darkness through the snow.
1 hurried toward it. The angular
outline of Spoofs shack emerged grad
ually out of the mist, like sunker
boat rising slowly to the surface OF
the water. Half Of it was concealed
at best by the great drifts that Dor
dered it, I found my way to the
shack, around the corner, to the door
Should / knock? Prairie manners, par
ticularly among bachelor neighbors
are free and easy. 1t would be NJ
great breach of etiquette for me casu
ally to enter Spoofs house withou
knocking. I believed 1 had done tina
before. And there would be pur
pose in it, now of all times. /.
knocked.
There was no answer. That wa!
subject to different explanations. A
knock on bachelors door, miles from
a neighbor, in midwinter, is thing 81
unexpected that sometimes the ca
does not register it; it merely cock
itself to make sure if the sount
should be repeated.
/ knocked again. In moment tn,
door opened, and I saw Spool, in {
flannel shirt and smoking jacket, cor
duroy trousers, moccasins-L think
took in every detail Of his attire. Hi
tie was drawn neatly up to the throat
his hair was well brushed; he had no
shaved His mustache was heavier
his face paler, thinner
"Why, FrankI' he exclaimed.
seemed to hear both welcome and EN-
barrassment in his voice. "Come In