Job's Pool 



weed its delicacy. The goldenrod turned brazen 

 and wore its yellow like a harlot's robe. 



Yet not ten yards beyond, it was as though we 

 had stepped out of the traffic with its discordant 

 jargon, into a dim cathedral, vaulted high with 

 boughs and buttressed to its slender groinings 

 with the trunks of trees. Dank coolness rose up 

 from the floor as in a place long closed to sun- 

 light. The air had ceased to breathe. And in 

 the center of this silence lay a little pit-black 

 pool. The ferns that grew about it were the 

 very fringe of mystery for at their roots we saw 

 the miracle take place. Mold and sodden leaves 

 were cleansed of their decay. Softly, irresistibly, 

 the creative power drew all things to itself and 

 informed them with new birth. Corruption put 

 on incorruption and revealed itself as means of 

 the eternal life. 



Communion at this service was too profound 

 for utterance. But as we stood in silence there 

 together, we were bound more close in the com- 

 panionship of those who acknowledge the same 

 God and who rise to the same creed. 



[141] 



