Imperial Valley press., 1937-01-24

no pacifying her when she discovered that her
husband had saved bank in which his miners
had put their money.
What thanks do you suppose youth get for
that?" she had asked coldly. "Robbing US to
save them. They'll all have jobs and won't ever
know who saved them. but it means giving up
everything for u.s."
mot everything. Wen always have plenty,
Mother"
GATHERINGS father had often told her of camp
ing trips he made as boy and of his trips at
sea where he worked his way on freighters.
He would put into the stories tang of advcn-
ture that made their telling rich and colorfuL
Those trips she knew, were different than the
ones her father had made with her mother
when mother had planned the itinerary and laid
the path through museums and formal recep-
tions. She shuddered to think of the sort of
man her father had become to please her
mother. man who in youth had committed
his path to an ambitious girl and who. once
married, had ''made the best of it." There had
been rumors of his affairs which her mother
generously used in accusations Catherine had
not especially believed them, but hoped they
were true since she felt that her father must
often have been lonely for human affection and
a little of the glamour which should accompany
the love of woman and man.
-HIS was strange Homecoming. Her fathers
body as cold as the snow without; her own
heart an enigma. There were no tears. She felt,
indeed, that his passing had been release from
an existence that had grown steadily harder and
harder to bear. Perhaps when her parents had
been in their early twenties as she now was,
the activity of life had eclpsed their inharmony,
but as the years went on and the philosophical
and successful time had come, and with 1t
leisure, only loneliness was left
It must have been very hard for this man
who was warm by nature and affectionate, not
to be able to find responsive hand in which
to place his own he read his books at night
or travelled in foreign lands. She could feel no
sympathy for her mother, for already she knew
her mother would be planning the wedding with
Harry making sure of financial stability, and
planning in her mind how she would handle the
properties left to her.
Catherine walked to the observation car and
looked out over the mountains. The moonlight
fell softly upon the white world, making a
strange ethereal picture with the silvery rays
falling on snow-weighted pines. The hush Of
natures cathedral, dimly lighted, called forth
prayer for her fathers soul. Standing alone
in this beauty, she found that her own soul
cried out for john She was lonely-almost
afraid If only she could feel his arm about her
the years ahead would not look so empty. She
was conscious of two emotions. One. that Of
having her world collapse upon receiving notice
of her fathers death; the other of wanting that
aching void filled by John who was so very
like her father Strange that she had never
noticed 1t before. There that same love oi
people and that same patience with her little
foolish whims. She realized that the sheer beauty
of the mountains called forth a desire for Johr
to share it with her. Often she had wanted
him when unaccountably moved by an inspiring
sight. She felt that she would not mind tn,
humbleness of the tourist coach If she coult
sit beside John and lay her head upon his shoul