The Ely miner., 1930-10-31

start in the work that had been ST.
cruelty interrupted. There were flow,
ers on her desk from every depart
ment in the organization; from old
and less fortunate friends still lying
prone on their back in the hospital ::
from Doctor Alonysious and his entire
staff.
The return of Edna Oliver to the
busy, sQuirming, struggling world WAS
the return of a cOnqueror. But right
here the advancement of this story OF
her progress misses cog, so TO speak.
The Edna Oliver who had returned
to her work with thanksgiving in her
heart, enthusiasm in her spirit, felt
herself appalled, at the very threshold
Somehow, in some way, the new Edna
asked herself almost Immediately.
questions that had never occurred 10
the old Edna. The years of medita.
tion in the cloistered reaches of the
long days and the long nights had
awakened new channels of thought in
her mind. 1t was impossible TO find
herself in this elbowing, pushing, SHOW
ing. unthinking, relentless world and
not ask herself questions that were
minted out of the new wisdoms that
the fifteen years had given her.
Whittier? Why this rush? What
mattered this day-byday struggle foI
the creature things, if in their attain
ment one had not time for the beau
tiful leisure for thought and commun.
ion? What was ii they were strug-
Cling for, scratching for, throttling
for? What availed roof over the
head, if beneath that roof there were
neither leisure, wisdom, contentment,
beauty?
II was impossible for Edna Oliver
to rush about the city. hither, thither,
here. there: up, down; fn under: and
not feel herself tormented by sense
of futility. Life on the surface was
so evasive; life beneath the surface.
in the quiet, somber, profound reaches
of the soul had taught her that.
The world which had taken her back
so eagerly no longer satisfied Edna
Oliver. Her heart and mind were
filled with pity toward it. Her one
desire was TO find a way to instill in
TO these hurried. harried comrades
of hers some of her new, strange wis
doms of the deeper values of life.
And yet, of course you did not
mount a soap box and query: List
en-, folks Where are you hurrying?
What do you do with the seconds and
minutes so frantically saved? OF
what significance is this vast, strange,
beautiful world in which you find
yourselves, If you have neither the
peace, the leisure, nor the wisdom to
enjoy it?
"Where is this leisure for which
you are rushing? | see it nowhere.
Where do you keep it? In pot of
gold at the end of rainbow? Why,
you cannot even see the rainbows for
the cluttered. noisy horizon.
"When do you think, people. you,
out there, in the maelstrom? What
do you think? Do you think at all?
IldNS yOu cNNi iiio thS
convent of your own souls and
learned some of the strange wis
dOms that turk in contemplation"
No. one certainly did not give ones
self away by preaching that sort of
gospel to busy, needless world.
There must be more subtle ways to
disseminate some of her secrets. 1t
was the sort of wisdom you had TO
dole out to an unsuspecting world in
sugar pills. The men and women
who miled about her in her daily
work would have tapped their brOws
over her. had they suspected the vast,
strange doubts that her return to the
maelstrom was awakening in Edna.
She did not propose to have them tap
their brOws over her.
But slowly and surely was borne in
upon her the need to save herself.
The need to find her way back into
the peaceful meadows of soul and
spirit where she had rested during
the long years of her slow and pain
full convalescence.
1t might offhand seem ungrateful to
win back her world only to surrender
it again. but more and more pOig-
nantly IT was borne in upon Edna
that she had not won back her world;
she had lost her world. The one
back there in the calm. clOistered
reaches of the mind and spirit which
her bed of pain had created for her.
1t was inevitable that the new
Edna should find her way back TO the
companionship of the stricken ones
in the hospital; to those whose bap-
tism of fire had made them wiser,
more tolerant. more chastened. 1t
was further inevitable that the new
Edna should ultimately drift into the
companionship of marriage with her
erstwhie physician, DR.. Edward
Alonysious, who also had looked into
the vale of the resurrected in spirit.
and had there found the wisdom and
the beauty.