THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 177 



sky, can discourse of nothing but the amount of 

 milk or the number of raw eggs they have that day 

 consumed or sigh obstreperously for a New York 

 porterhouse steak — then in very truth I, who was 

 also exiled, found our healthseeker a burden heavy 

 to be borne — especially when weary and making the 

 hard, individual fight. 



More healthful is it for the soul to give than to 

 receive, but there are times when the soul is un- 

 equal to the large part assigned to it, and personal 

 trials cannot always be forgotten in ministering to 

 those of the ungrateful and unappreciative. Such 

 ministry, long drawn out, drives the iron inward 

 once in a while. Also it gradually became apparent 

 that the sense of obligation, even the veriest frac- 

 tion, is carried gracefully and fitly only by those in 

 whom some noble quality exists. Dormant may be 

 this essence of nobility, or to the dull eye invisible, 

 but mortals through whose warp and woof runs a 

 thread of gold alone seem capable of keeping the 

 divine fire warm upon their hearth-stones. 



Thus we approach one of the reasons for the de- 

 cline of the healthseeker in our Valley — the trans- 

 ient that is. Of resident healthseekers there are 

 many, the larger number carrying on without let or 

 hindrance various occupations, others for no suf- 

 ficient reasons not faring well or merely enjoying 

 a lengthening of their days. For any person who 

 endeavors to forecast the future when up against 

 the most unreliable and fickle of all mortal com- 

 plaints is a gambler indeed ! Our winter visitors in 

 the past furnished us more than amply with that 



