along
out in the sunny mesa land.

"I want to see you. I am saving up my pennies religiously, and when
they have multiplied sufficiently I am coming. Thanks for the
invitation.

"Lovingly as always,

"Connie."

CHAPTER XVIII

QUIESCENT

Long but not dreary weeks followed one after the other. In the little
'dobe cottage, situated far up the hill on the mesa, Carol and David
lived a life of passionless routine. Carol was busy, hence she had the
easier part. David's breakfast on a tray at seven, nourishment at
nine, luncheon at twelve, nourishment at three, dinner at six,
nourishment at nine,--with medicines to be administered, temperatures
to be taken, alcohol rubs to be given at frequent intervals,--this was
Carol's day. And at odd hours the house must be kept clean and
sanitary, dishes washed, letters written. And whenever the moment
came, David was waiting for her to come and read aloud to him.

When a man of action, of energy, of boundless enthusiasm is tossed
aside, strapped with iron bands to a little white cot on a screened
porch with a view of a sunburned mesa reaching off to the mountains,
unless he is of the biggest, and finest, his personality can not
survive. David's did. Months of helplessness lay behind him, a life
of inaction lay before him. He could walk a half block or so, he could
go driving with kind neighbors who invited him, but every avenue of
service was closed, every form of expression denied him. He had hoped
to live a full, good, glowing life. And there he lay.

It is not work which tells the caliber of man, but idleness.

Month followed month, now there were bitter winds and blinding snows,
now the hot sun scorched the yellow sand of the mesa, now the mountains
were high white clouds of snow, now the fields of green alfalfa showed
on a few distant foothills, and the canyons were green with pines.
Otherwise there was no change.

But the summers in New Mexico were crushingly, killingly hot, and so
the sturdy-hearted health chasers left the 'dobe cottage, packed their
few possessions and moved up into Colorado. And while David waited
patiently in the hotel, Carol set forth alone and found a small cottage
with sleeping porch, cleanly and nicely furnished, rent reasonable, no
objections to health seekers. And she and David moved into their new
home.

And the old life of Albuquerque began again, meals, nourishments and
medicines alternating through the days.

In t