| Show the old settler my dear san Jua ners I 1 walked as spirits walk and my path was back through the zones cf f yesterday back back it was on the road over which we had toiled painfully forward day by day yet I 1 moved now as spirits move and the sound of all radios died away behind me I 1 passed f from rom the sight and the whirr of airplanes and automobiles from telephones good roads improved I 1 schools the wondrous comforts which have come to us in the last four decades and was movin moving 9 along over winding trails where we used to crawl along at a snails pace in our wagons I 1 came to a low log hut I 1 had forgotten that it ever stood right there for the last vestiges of its foundations had long since been cleared away now it stood again as of yore the same wretched dwelling that I 1 had known but had seldom entered for I 1 too had shared the popular dislike for its people but I 1 entered that dwelling now entered it eagerly entered unseen as spirits enter A woman sat there before the open fire sewing a patch on a blanket that blanket had been patched many times before the original fabric was buried buried under patches she sewed quietly her deft fingers wielding the thimble the needle and the thread as something to which she was long accustomed and as her head bowed over her work her tears fell on the faded patch it was a wintry night chill winds howled around the corners and moaned over the chimney top sending puffs of smelly smoke out into the room around her in their crowded beds lay the wom anys ans children nestled closely against each other t U keep warm I 1 remembered that one of them was unfortunate another crippled after a long time she finished sewing on the patch and arising tucked the covers tenderly around her sleeping flock and spread the blanket over one of the three beds then she kneeled beside it on the cold floor and after whispering fervent words of prayer she got carefully under the quilts beside a baby and burying her face in the pillow wet it with her tears as she sobbed softly oh why had the great dispenser of human fortune laid such a heavy hand on this woman why was she and her children in such painful disfavor why their grinding poverty why robbed of the husband and father who should be championing their cause why all this for them while on all sides people lived in ease and good fellowship low ship among them the rich the brilliant the well favored their children dressed in gay colors I 1 looked forth as down a stream from the womans comans home to the spreading fan of her posterity and among them prominent for worth in their communities were the wise the dependable solid continued on page 6 the old settler continued irom from page 1 men and women carrying more than their share of public service then I 1 looked f orth forth as down a greater stream from the homes of the rich and the well favored and I 1 saw mediocrity selfishness men and women vitiated with exaggerated notions of their own importance immediately I 1 was back with the speed of a spirit to the present fast and furious age with its rank injustice its insane prejudices its poverty ridden its despised its unfortunate and oppressed my heart ached as I 1 contemplated tem plated what was thrust upon them and yet the echoes of what I 1 had just seen admonished me blessed are the poor blessed are the meek blessed are they that mourn blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely rejoice anabe and be exceed exceeding ing glad for great is your reward in the day of unfailing compensations ALBERT R LYMAN |
