Show the old settler my near dear san Jua ners the events of our lives do not happen each one is part of a definite program the course of human events if not of such trivial consequence that it is left to the caprice of chance to be vitiated by accidents without deanin meaning g or purpose each occasion is part of a which when properly assembled is a pattern of beauty and meaning I 1 thought of that when a strange coincident took me back in memory to another coincident more inore than fifty years before on that day more than half a century before I 1 had been riding with another boy behind a pack cut fit and this boy alee alec had pictured to me what he had in mind to do the bl big things in which he expected to have a glorious time ahead it was gripping inspiring I 1 had a burning 0 desire to follow him and I 1 figured figure d that was what I 1 would do my mind was full of it when we came to camp where we met another boy elmer it may have been what we had on our minds that set elmer 6 off ff on his delineation of the wonderful things he intended to do elmers plan was very different to what alee alec had mapped out and its glittering heights and fantastic possibilities made alecs ideas seem almost dull and tame in comparison the impressive thing to me was that I 1 should happen that is if anything can really just happen to meet these two boys on the same day after a lapse of fifty odd years each one of us were now getting well along towards the seventy mark and athe the years had combed the color out of our hair the teeth out of our mouths and the bloom of prime out of our faces yet alee alec looked sur surprisingly P ri singly young while elmer seemed to be a feeble old man tottering on his last legs had they had their fun that was the thing I 1 wanted to find out that was what we had in in mind when we separated at that camp fire in the morning long ago 11 fun beamed alee alec his intelligent face a thrill of mature understanding der 1 I have not only had the fun but im having it still and I 1 look for much more of it in the future you see when I 1 went in for fun I 1 want anything that would leave a bad taste in my mouth theres the good kind of fun that carries on and on getting t better and better and theres the cheap short kind that always turns bitter elmer listened to it and became very quiet he had had his fun money wine wild parties the race track the card table the short joy of many an exciting day and night had vanished like like a mirage leaving only aching and desolation with their memory the meeting of us three that day after such a lapse of time was by no means an accident but a fitting together of twos two related pieces in a mosaic which now showed a meaning never so clear before ALBERT B R LYMAN |