The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1936-10-09
ODD; and the three-ply terror of snov

Odd; and the three-ply terror of snow
and winter oon and silence"
Norman seemed compelled to pause
for a moment.
1--WE felt the spell to some extent
az least I did-on the walk over to the
iotel with the other passengers. But
II was when we were walking back to
n train a half hour or so later, only
we two together, walking in a world
Una was all snowpeaks and snow and
chrome steel moonlight-that was
when it really took us"
1t was the aloneness, in my case"
Mary said. II remember being swept,
an OF a sudden, by a desperate feeling
that I must cling fast to Norman. He
was the only other person in all that
world OF snow. If I didn't cling to him
l mlght-.might easily be whirled off
tne Whlrllng world and flung straight
i9to mat huge. cold moon, alone! But
II l clung to him., and we should hap
pen to be whirled off into the moon TO-
gether, I shouldn't mind at all. That
was how I felt"
MY feeling was the same" said
Norman, but with what no doubt were
masculine variations. The beauty and
terror were closing in on me, were lit
eraliy about to engulf my spirit, when
an idea came over me These terrors
and these beauties of earth, I thought,
v to be mastered. That is why there
are men and women on the earth. Men
and women have to master the earth
together.
DO you see what was taking pos
session Of me? 1t was the deadly and
the deathless conviction which I be-
lleve runs in the blood of all men and
and do what we do-the conviction
that we've got to go on striving, and
building, and tearing down, and bring
Ing new men and women to the world,
until the last mountain is climbed and
the last valley tanned. And then we can't
rest; because then there will be the
mountains of the moon to conquer, and
the deserts of Mars. and the ice fields
OF Saturn, and the methans tornadoes
that rage over Jupiter"
He stopped and chuckled, while a
certain glitter faded out of his eyes.
Afraid I'm using rather high-flown
language" he said then. All I've been
leading up to is that Mary and I sud-
denly looked at each other and found
that we were in love-"
waited what I think was almost a
minute before I asked: "Yet you don't
consider that that was a great mo-
ment?"
NO." Norman maintained, II don't.
It was a wonderful moment, yes. Beau
tiful, a grand elimination of what had
gone before in our 10 months of mar
riage-all that. But not great"
"The great moments" Mary sup
plemented his words, were the mo-
ments in those first 10 months when
we'd find some new field where n of
us needed the other, or some new
point on which we could be compan-
ions, comrades, allies. And those still
are the great moments-and we still
have them, too"
THE relationship broadens and
deepens all the time, eh?" I said. I
thought with some concentration for a
few seconds, then asked them: "Well
in view of your experience, I suppose if
you had your way you'd throw both
the BritiSh-American love is all theory
and the European money is what
counts theory out of the world and tell
every young couple simply to ask them
selves before they marry whether they
need each other?"
Not only to ask themselves" Mary
said, but to carry on long researches
on the question whether they need
each other-because I think it's the
most important question they face. If
they do need each other, I think it's
practically a certainty that love will
stay with them and grow if they have
love to begin with; Or that love viii