The morning sun came creeping through the cracks of the garret as I
slowly awoke to consciousness and began rubbing my eyes, trying to make
out where I was and how I came there. Slowly it dawned upon me, the
awful work of trying to push that wheel through the mud; the descending
darkness; the increasing storm; of how I left the bicycle by the
road-side and the sickening sense that came over me as I felt that I
had lost my way and must find shelter or perish; of how my heavy woolen
dress, soaked with water, tangled my tired legs as I struggled forward;
of the glimmering light, and how I feared that though I had at last
found a house they might mistake me for an outcast and have no pity on
me; of the sweet peace I experienced when the old man spoke to me; of
following his suggestion that I should remove my dress; of how I stood
clad only in my under-clothing before the fire, and of how he put me to
bed, and I was all unabashed and unashamed. I thought of all this and
more, and was just getting ready to be thoroughly frightened when my
reverie was broken into by hearing a step come lightly up the ladder,
and the beautiful face of The Man framed in its becoming snowy white
hair appeared.
“Yes, she is awake,” he said, again seemingly talking to a third
person. “She will be a little sore of course after the exertion, but
refreshed and all the stronger for the hard work. Paradoxical--effort
put forth causes power to accumulate in the body, which is only a
storage battery after all. By giving out power we gain it, by losing
life we save it. How simple yet how wonderful are the works of God!”
Then speaking to me: “I will bring you warm water for a bath. It will
take the stiffness out of your limbs. Breakfast will be ready when you
are.”
I bathed, dressed without the aid of a glass, and was surprised to feel
how strong and well I felt. Down I went cautiously on the ladder, and
we ate breakfast, neither speaking a word. It seemed as if (glib as I
generally am--“A regular gusher,” Martha Heath says) to break in on the
silence would be sacrilege. Silence is music at rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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