“AND SO TO BED.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20359, 17 July 1934, Page 10

“AND SO TO BED.”

The Invalid Draws But an Infinite Leisure.

There is a vast gap between striving to remain normally up and at length succumbing to a period in bed. To the last there seems no real reason for going to bed. One will certainly be better on tfie morrow, and the rest that is recommended fills one with self-con-sciousness and a sense of making a fuss. Once one is in bed, one is prone with admiration at one’s own heroism in resisting. Bed becomes normal instead of extravagant. It is as though all the world were really there to promote bed, to fetch and carry, to pay visits, to produce the necessary stamps, write the uecessary postcards. The first day in bed, while it seems as though it should have had any number of predecessors, is perhaps unduly long. There are things to regulate; that affair of the light, that pillow which is so much more comfortable than the next. Food on a tray has yet to learn a routine; the clock’s position might be bettered. But once all this is settled, then bed prevails, becomes a routine, becomes the normal. The avocations for bed, which have been provided, grow less strenuous. In the morning there is much to do with matters of toilet alone. Any gaps are filled by the need for taking medicine, for reading parts of the paper. A letter, a package, becomes an event, with appropriate conversation. The new book may be read, but need not. There are kind inquiries. These draw out into an infinite leisure, until one wonders wliv bed has seemed so strange and dull. ‘Dull! Bed alters every value., A bird at the window becomes an event; so does a new vase of flowers. A bed jacket becomes a matter of Paris fashions. One’s hands grow clean for once and cause reflection. The pleasant land of counterpane triumphs, and bed becomes a plane other 13 CVen m ° ie normal tllau any i HL S HI HI §3 HI ID © © El © HI Hi © © HI 11 HI ©