ult. Come to this island
we would and come we did! And this is the end of it--we--we sit moveless
from sun-up to sun-down, we who have soared into the clouds. But there
is a humorous element in it. And if I didn't weep, I could laugh myself
mad over it. We sit here helpless and watch these creatures who walk
desert us daily--desert us--creatures who flew--leave us here helpless
and alone."

"But in the beginning," Lulu interposed anxiously, "they did try to take
us with them. But it tired them so to carry us--for or that's--what in
effect they do."

"And there was one time just after we were married when it was all
wonderful," said Peachy. "I did not even miss the flying, for it seemed
to me that Ralph made up for the loss of my wings by his love and
service. Then, they began to build the New Camp and gradually everything
changed. You see, they love their work more than they do us. Or at least
it seems to interest them more."

"Why not?" Julia interpolated quietly. "We're the same all the time. We
don't change and grow. Their work does change and grow. It presents
new aspects every day, new questions and problems and difficulties, new
answers and solutions and adjustments. It makes them think all the time.
They love to think." She added this as one who announces a discovery,
long pondered over. "They enjoy thinking."

"Yes," Lulu agreed wonderingly, "that's true, isn't it? That never
occurred to me. They really do like thinking. How curious! I hate to
think."

"I never think," Chiquita announced.

"I won't think," Peachy exclaimed passionately. "I feel. That's the way
to live."

"I don't have to think," Clara declared proudly. "I've something better
than thought-instinct and intuition."

Julia was silent.

"Julia is like them," Lulu said, studying Julia's absent face tenderly.
"She likes to think. It doesn't hurt, or bother, or irritate, or
tire--or make her look old. It's as easy for her as breathing. That's
why the men like to talk to her."

"Well," Clara remarked triumphantly, "I don't have to think in order to
have the men about me. I'm very glad of that."

This was true. The second year of their stay in Angel Island, the
other four women had rebuked Clara for this tendency to keep men about
her--without thinking.

"It is not necessary for us to think," said Peachy with a sudden,
spirited lift of her head from her shoulders. The movement brought back
some of her old-time vivacity and luster. Her thi