The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-08-19

journeyed to the home Uf a grand
daughter to visit her bedridden octo-
genarian father-in-law, a friend of half
a lifetime. Ever so often. too. he
found occasion to visit the white
haired aunt by marriage of one of
his sons. beautiful. plump old
creature who sat all day like a con
tented cat. in the sun-drenched
rooms and on the sun-drenched ter
races of her lovely house and let her
self fatten on well-being.
Poor old Aunt Ella. Can't make her
stir. Sits and soaks herself in sun.
Knits Stiles for people who won't
wear them. Dozes by the hour.
Loves waiting on. Goes to bed at
eight and loves to be sleepy and
snooze like ar adorable old maltese
cat. Can't you shame her, Senatorl
You couldn't shame great, plump.
purring old woman like that She
was for all the world like nothing but
a maltese in the sun. sleek. contented,
superior.
Come out of it. Ella. Be young
one. Dancer
"Dance, my hind foot, Senator. You
can make your old bones play at being
twenty. Mine are seyenty-five and
I'm showing them a good time"
Nothing to do about a woman like
thati
The summers were a nuisance. No
III ta1 hn trin n triaI
A man was supposed to be entitled to
look upon his holiday as a period OF
rest. But nothing of the sort If you
had the reputation of being the
youngest man on board the floating
palace of an ocean liner, there was
no such thing as relaxation. Young
ones knocking on the cabin door.
Come on, Senator. we're all waiting
for you TO come up on board and show
who is the best shuttle board player
on this ship. Saving me dance for
tonight. Senator? Oh, say. Senator.
don't you go and desert me for that
pretty blonde. You promised to walk
the deck with me this evening.
Yes, the summers were a trial
Same way at Antilles, or Paris. or
Deauville or wherever youth and
beauty fitted Fight on! Don't let
the years so much as get toe in
the wedges of the door. Fight on.
Sometimes the tiredness became just
numbness and that made it easier.
except you dared not relax. The
memory had to be kept oiled, to re-
partee f1awless and tendency to rem
inisce held firmly in check. Fight on
you're not an individual any more.
Senator" Aunt Ella told him once,
sitting on the porch in her huge up
holstered chair and daubing arnica
along her swollen rheumatic knuckles.
you're the prize exhibit. You're like
the dog-faced man and the fat lady
and the two-headed girl. You're the
old-boy wonder. Can't grow old. The
boy-wonder who was cursed with the
inability to grow old"
How she cackled. In age you had
to guard against that. Without your
being aware. the laugh could become
a cackle.
Then fell the nine days wonder.
Almost like the one-horse shay, the
Senator awoke one morning too tired
to face the day of the frivolities. the
trivialties. the repartee and the chal-
length of youth. His bones hurt. His
spirit hurt. His soul hurt.
The young and younger generation
about him declare they can trace
his disintegration to the day. AL
most the hour. They blamed Aunt
Ella. The facetious patter is that she
vamped him at seventy-five.
Be that as it may. the Senator and
Aunt Ella sit now sometimes six and
seven hours on end in the great sunny
rooms or Oh the wide sunny terraces
of the beautiful country house. The
Senator has relaxed so outrageously
to his rheumatism that Aunt Ella says
of him somewhat testify that it is in
decent surrender
The curious part of it is that with
all his shamelessly revealed infirmi-
ties. govt, joint trouble, jaundice and
a leaking heart, the Senator somehow
looked better. Relaxed, is Aunt
Elias way of putting il.
"Call it what you WILL" says the
Senator, "it's solid comfort. Being
Lightweight has enormous compensa-
lions. if you'll just let yourself be
lightweight"