ESTATE OF POMPEII
179
HEADING COLOSSAL INDUSTRIAL SURGE $BILLION PRO–
GRAM.
At first Roderick thought this was an ironic reference to their
own small speculation, which had so astonishingly paid off. Then
he saw the item the old man had marked: a small "filler" which
apparently had nothing to do with British Columbia at all and ran:
SCARED TO DEATH
In Arizona, a 1000 acre forest of junipers suddenly withered and
died. Foresters are unable to explain it, but the Indians say the trees
died of fear but they are not in agreement as to what caused the fright.
Eridanus. Now, in July, the forest behind the pretty shacks
built on stilts grouped round the bay with his father-in-Iaw's boat–
building shed in the middle, would be in full bright leaf, celestially
green and sunfilled, the winding path leading you through scent of
mushrooms and ferns and dark firs to airy spaces where golden light
sifted down through vine-leaved maples and young swaying hazel
trees. Tansy'S rocky ten-foot garden would be blooming with fox–
gloves and wild geranium, marigolds and nasturtiums and sweet
alyssum, fireweed and hawksbeard would have sprung up on the
bank, the sea (between visits of oiltankers to the refinery over the
bay) cold, salt and pure, would be glittering in the sun and wind
below the porch, and beyond, the mountains, still with high patches
of snow, would rise to heaven in a turquoise haze. The wild cherry
and dogwood blossoms would be gone now, the huckleberries and the
blueberries would be ripe. Every day the mink would emerge from
the hollow tree where he lived with his family and prance and
dart secretively along the beach, or swim, only a tiny vicious
sleek brown head, importantly by. The fishermen would all have
sailed north to Active Pass or Prince Rupert, and save at weekends
there'd be nobody there at all save the Wildernesses and perhaps
the Llelewyns and his father-in-law. And that was where he should
be now-not in Paris or Naples or Rome, in Eridanus, reading,
correcting papers and taking notes in the long summer twilight,
chatting with Tansy's father or drifting down the inlet in their
rowboat, or taking Tansy and Peggy on a picnic-watching the con–
stellations;
mens sana in corpore sana.
Sailing boats would sweep
downstream or tack across the bay, and at night the lights of the
