The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1936-10-09
+ practically persuaded me that a bache.
lor leads only half a life, II that

practically persuaded me that a bache..
lor leads only half a life, II thai
much"
"The point is" Norman hurried on
that there was still thing lack
ing. The-the spark hadn't yet been
ignited: The disappointment over our
respective failures in love was long
gone, of course. And why not? We had
friendship, we had comradeship, mutual
respect, usefulness to each other. we
had everything else that everybody
knows goes into the making OF a sue
cessful marriage-except that we we're
not in love. We hadn't been in love
when we were married, and we weren't
yet in love-"
(which is what makes me surer every
time I think of it, said Mary, that
as far as happiness in marriage Is con.
cerned love is anything but all. Why, it
isn't the tenth part Of all. I'm posi-
tive, looking back on those first 10
months, that I never once worried
each other or not"
"Nor L" Norman said earnestly. 1--WE
had 70 much else. When it came, OF
courSe-love, I mean-it was wonderful,
and I wouldn't deliberately wish us back
where we were before that night In
the high Rockies; but"
Love arrived in the Rockies, then"
I said. every romantic. What brought
it on? Cowboys? Indians? Gold miners,
perhaps?"
"Buttermilk," said Mary.
"Snow and mountains and the moon"
said Norman.
The two answers, I thought, IS all
nicely the fundamental practically of
woman and the fundamental romanti-
cism of man.
"The train" Norman resumed,
stopped sometime after dark at a
little town named Three Forks, in
western Montana. 60 miles or 81 this
side of Butte, the copper mining city.
line ahead and we were to wait at
Three Forks for about an hour until
there should be a clear run into Butte.
The little town has that name of Three
Forks, by the way, because it IS at the
point where three rivers, the Madison,
Gallatin and Jefferson, come together
to form the Missouri river.
What Mary means by 'buttermllk' IS
that we got out of the train to buy
some, along with most of u fellow
passengers. The Pullman porters told
us that Three Forks was the clearing
point for the fine cattle and dairy
products of those high mountain river
valleys; reminds you a little of what
you've heard of Switzerland.
I'VE walked over to the hotel, a
couple of hundred yards from the sta
ton, to sample these wares-which in
cidentally were pretty good. There
weren't more than -four inches of snow
on the ground; it was only the noun
tain cuts ahead of us that needed to be
cleared for the train. The night had
turned off clear and cold.
Il can't do justice to those mountains
and that snow and that moon as we
saw them when we stepped off the
train. Ever see the Rockies, Frank?"
mo, sorry to say" l. .
Beauty and terror are the words,
I think, said Norman. Here was this
valley, edged and hedged with these
great blue-white snowpeaks under the
winter moon. The MINDLESS air was so
cold and clear and thin that the moon
looked enormous, and lei enough to
us to roll right down into the valley
if some power should give the universe
the least bit of a joggle. And you could
almost hear the electric glitter Of the
giant, swarming stars.
Beauty and terror, I tell you! The
beauty of the earlier world, the young
mountain world Chose Jagged, naked
Rockies are new mountains, geologic
ally. whereas, of course, the sleek, ripe
looking mountains here in the east are