20/23 He, Bryant, could not consider these accidents with Pat Carrigan's philosophic calm--a calm acquired from decades of camp tragedies and disasters. Though they appeared inevitable where men delved or builded or flung forth great spans, they made the cost of constructive works seem too great. They took the glamor from projects and left them hard, grim, uninspiring tasks. The strain under which he laboured, the sustained effort of driving this furrow through earth that was like iron, his unavailing endeavours to reclaim Ruth, afflictions such as this of the past hour, the uncertainty of everything--all sapped his energy and shook his faith. |