THAT ELUSIVE EIDERDOWN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23897, 26 August 1939, Page 19

THAT ELUSIVE EIDERDOWN

4 ByM.R. M. / I struggled to drag myself, out of the ice cold river, but my limbs were chilled and would not move. I tried again, and this time soldiers with rifles In their hands shouted at me, , their voices sounding harsh above the roar of the stream, “This is the frontier. You may struggled harder than ever,’ clinging fiercely to", the bank—and awoke ;to , find myself frehziedly clutching'the sheet while eiderdown and blankets were in a heap on the floor. . ■ ~. It had looked so attractive; in the shop, with its gold brocade, silk cover; showing a faint pattern of chrysanthemums. An elaborate niching held the feathers hi place in lovely puffs. In and out the, needle of the sewing . girl had gohe, while •; nimble fingers pushed r aside the feathers to clear a path- ‘for, the stitching. When I arranged it on my bed, and adjusted the reading light so that its soft glow was reflected in the golden lights of the brocade, I felt that it lent an air of opulence even to my landlady’s idea of a comfortable bed sitting room. . For years I had slept comfortably enough beneath a /w®i^t^|)f*;thin;, boarding hpuise blapkets, topped hir my travelling rug,, and on occasions of dire necessity by my fur coat'as Well, but. Dunedin’s .July: wfeather, with sledges, tgid , skis and! ,'.other ■ associations of the Antarctic so much in evidence, seemed definitely to demand an eiderdown! on, the bed. ■ Encouraged : by !the warmth , soon to be enjoyed, I opened wide my bedroom window, not just to dd some deep breathing exercises and then to shut it hastily again, all but a six-inch crack, as had been my deplorable practice in pre-eider-down days. As I raised the sash my hand brushed across the window ledges sending a flurry of snow 1 to the path beneath, and the night wind drove in bitterly cold from the glistening white slopes of Flagstaff. But the new health standards I had set myself demanded this Spartan atmosphere, so with a 1 hop and a skip, I fled from the open: window to the protection of the blankets. Here was comfort! The hot water bag was exactly the right tempera-, ture, the lumps in. the mattress were more favourably distributed than usual, and the cosiness of the eiderdown was oyer all. Warmth without weight, and plenty of fresh air—ideal conditions. Almost before.! had finished putt, ting the last curler in place the struggle began. When I turned* to the left the eiderdown gently, and unobtrusively moved to the right, and when I turned to the right so; that my back was to the wall and my eye could command the door and: window while I read Chapter 10 of “The Midnight Murder,” the,eiderdown moved in the opposite direction. But this is mere playfulness, I thought. It will settle down in its new surroundings presently, and. all will be well. So, having faund that it could not possibly have been the maiden aunt who put the poison in. the coffee, and therefore suspicion was back again on the second footman, I turned out the light and clutched the eiderdown closely around me. A lovely warm glow spread through my body, and though an icy draught trickled through the open window I easily evaded it by burrowing my head deeply into the blankets. -

Time to turn round, and now the eiderdown didn’t seem to adjust itself quite so snugly to the curve of my back. I was almost asleep, however, and nothing mattered very much any more. Half an hour later I was leaning precariously out of bed to pick up the eiderdown from the floor. At 2 a.m. I found the truthv of the proverb, “Evil communications corrupt good manners ” for my erstwhile well behaved blankets had joined the eiderdown on the floor. At 4 a.m. I arose altogether and remade my bed. this time imprisoning the edge of the eiderdown between the bed and the walk At 6 a.m. I awoke to find the rain coming in the window and soaking the landlady’s curtains. The thought of the unpleasant explanation that would have to be made at breakfast, together with the discomfort of Icecold feet kept sleep at bay until, nearly 7 o’clock, when I fell into a nightmare-ridden slumber, from which I awakened at a dangerously late hour to find myself frantically gripping the sheet, which whs all that was left of my bed coverings. <. As I looked at the tangle:’off blankets and eiderdown on the floor I sneezed once, twice, three times. While I mixed a stiff dose of quinine as a possible preventive of the chill I feared was about to decend upon : me, I wished sadly that I had never seen a gold brocade eiderdown. Far better to have purchased instead:*:thick pink flannel nightgown closely buttoned at wrist and neck. ■At: least it would have stayed,put. , • _