He wakened early, as he had of late been doing, and sat up, noting the
sleeping figures in a circle about the ashes of the fire, and as his
look travelled on past them he noted out by the edge of the Black Gorge
through which they were to travel that day, a solitary figure sitting on
one of the curious rocks that framed a sort of gateway to the diminutive
canyon. Even at that distance he could distinguish the form of Elijah
Clifford, although he had already noticed that Clifford's rug and rubber
blanket, which had been spread out by his own, had been folded up and
tied ready for the day's trip.
Before the rest of the sleepers had stirred, Clifford came back to the
spot and began with the noiseless rapidity of an Indian to build the
fire in the sand preparatory to the breakfast, talking in a soft voice
to Bauer, as if Bauer had asked him a question, although Bauer had not
said a word except "Good-morning," when Clifford cheerfully greeted him.
"You see, I used to work on a daily paper in Kansas City before I was
converted and it seems to me now that I spend most of my time trying to
catch up with the day after to-morrow. I never had any leisure, never
went to church, never opened a Bible and never talked with myself. Since
I came out here I've had the time of my life in not only talking with
myself but------" He glanced at Bauer wistfully as he put some stones
around the hole and set his coffee pot down on the sand, "but I never
saw such a place as a desert to find God. It seems as if this was the
place to find him. You know Moses and Elijah and David and Paul and John
and lots of men found God in the wilderness. I suppose you could find
him while working for a daily paper, but He didn't seem to have much to
do with the one I was on. At any rate I never found Him there. That's
the reason I like to get up early. There's a time in the morning between
four and five out here, when it appears to me God has more time to tend
to individuals. Most everybody is asleep soundest about that time and He
can pay attention better to the comparatively few folks that don't need
so much rest."--Elijah said it as if to apologise for the habits of the
rest of the party and Bauer could not help smiling at his note of
evident haste not to take too much credit to himself for early rising.
"I thought maybe you might kind of wonder at my ways, and think maybe I
got up to write poetry or some such stuff. I believe you understand,
eh?"
"I believe I do," said Bauer gravely. "And I appreciate your confidence.
I know what it means to try to find God in a crowd. I think that is one
reason Jesus had to leave the multitude and go out into the desert
places."
"Yes," said Clifford, sitting down on the sand and putting his coffee
pot on a stone. "I didn't mention Him. I thought you would remember that
yourself."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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