rolled away since our marriage. The puzzle
to me is how I ever got along before; and these last nine years have
been so crowded with the activities and worries of the increasing
cares of a growing work, that without the love and inspiration and
intellectual help of a true comrade, I could never have stood up under
them. Every side of life is developed and broadened by companionship.
I admit of no separation of life into "secular" and "religious."
Religion, if it means anything, means the life and activities of our
divine spirit on earth in relation to our Father in heaven. I am
convinced from experience of the supreme value to that of a happy
marriage, and that "team work" is God's plan for us on this earth.

CHAPTER XXI

NEW VENTURES

No human life can be perfect, or even be lived without troubles. Clams
have their troubles, I dare say. A queer sort of sinking feeling just
like descending in a fast elevator comes over one, as if trouble and
the abdominal viscera had a direct connection. Some one has said that
it must be because that is where the average mind centres. Thus, when
we lost the little steamer Swallow which we were towing, and with it
the evidence of a crime and the road to the prevention of its
repetition, it absolutely sickened me for two or three days, or, to be
more exact, during two or three nights. It was all quite unnecessary,
for we can see now that the matter worked out for the best. The fact
that troubles hurt most when one is at rest and one's mind unoccupied,
and in the night when one's vitality is lowest, is a great comfort,
because that shows how it is something physical that is at fault, and
no physical troubles are of very great importance.

The summer of 1910 brought me a fine crop of personal worries, and
probably deservedly so, for no one should leave his business affairs
too much to another, without guarantees, occasionally renewed, that
all is well. Few professional men are good at business, and personally
I have no liking for it. This, combined with an over-readiness to
accept as helpers men whose only qualifications have sometimes been of
their own rating, was really spoiling for trouble--and mine came
through the series of cooperative stores.

To begin with, none of the stores were incorporated, and their
liabilities were therefore unlimited. Though I had always felt it best
not to accept a penny of interest, I had been obliged to loan them
money, and their agent in St.