Cabin Fever

, so the mind fed too long upon monotony succumbs to the insidious mental ailment which the West calls "cabin fever." True, it parades under different names, accor

ong in the full current of progress. Be sure that it will make you abnormally sensitive to little things; irritable where once you were amiable; glum where once you went whistling about your work and your play. It is the crystallizer of character,

tempt; you will emerge with the contempt tinged with a pitying toleration, or you will be close, unquestioning friends to the last six feet of earth-and beyond. All these things will cabin fever do, and more. It has committed murder, many's

summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains and down to the State Park, which is locally called Big Basin. For something over fifty miles of wonderful scenic travel he charged six dollars, and usually his big car was loaded to the running boards. Bud w

saddle. (You may not know it, but it is harder for an old cow-puncher to find content, now that the fre

cigarette dangling from the quirkiest corner of his mouth, and his hands in his pockets. The glow of prosperity warmed his manner toward the world. He had a little money in the bank, he had his big car, he had the good will of a smiling world. H

t cars. So she said. Marie had all the effect of being a pretty girl. She habitually wore white middies with blue collar and tie, which went well with her clear, pink skin and her hair that just escaped being red. She knew how to tilt her "beach" hat at the most provocative angle, an

called. He was preoccupiedly reviewing the she-said-and-then-I-said, and trying to make up his mind whether he should kiss her and take a chance on her displeasure, or whether he had better wait. To him Marie appeared hazi

know what it was. Men never do know, until it is all over. He only knew that the drive through the shady stretches of woodland grew suddenly to seem like little journeys into paradis

while the crowd sang snatches of songs which no one knew from beginning to end, and that went very lumpy in the verses and very much out of harmony in the choruses. Sometimes they wou

their ingenuity to invent new reasons why Marie must go along. In three weeks they were married, and Marie's mother-a shrewd, shrewish widow-was trying to d

led him, though cause might have been summed up in two meaty phrases: too much id

ask. He did not mind the hour so much, but he did mortally hate to cook his own breakfast-or any other meal, for that matter. In the next room a rocking chair was rocking with a rhythmic squeak, and a baby was squalling with that sustain

kid, or do something to shut him up?" he exploded su

? I'll bet you've got the stove all over dough again-" The chair resumed its squeaking, the baby continued uninterrupted its

nth or so, but that was long enough to learn many things about babies which he had never known before. He knew, for

u what to do! Husky youngster like that-feeding 'im four ounces every four days-or some simp rule like that-" He lifted the cakes on to a plate that held two messy-looking fried eggs whose yolks had broke

stick that darn book in the stove. Ain't yuh got any feelings at all? Why, I wouldn't let a dog go hungry like that! Don't yuh re

ncessant outcry against the restrictions upon appetite imposed by enlightened motherhood.

d yuh to stand 'im on his head in the ice chest! By heck, between a woman and a hen tu

at! When it co

tic storms arise, and how love washes overboard when the ma

telling Marie how much of a snap she had had since she married him, and how he must have looked like ready money to her, and added that now, by heck, he even had to do his own cooking, as well as listen to her whining and nagging, and that there wasn't clean corner in the house, and she'd ra

rute, and she could curse the day she ever met him. That was going pretty far. Bud reminded her that

im that she wanted a ten-cent roll of cotton from the drug store, and added that she hoped she would not have to wait until next Christmas for it, either. Which bit of sarcasm so infl

o send him back home to tell her he was sorry. He went on, and met another friend before he had taken twenty steps. This friend was thinking of buying a certain second

her cylinders that shouted of carbon. They ran her into the garage shop and went deep into her vitals, and because she jerked

efsteak and mashed potato and coffee and pie, and while they ate they talked of gears and carburetors and transmission and ignition troubles, all of which alleviated temporarily Bud'

roken, as Bud had suspected, the twinkle was back in his eyes, and the smiley quirk stayed at the corners of his mouth, and when he was not talking m

Bud sat down on the running board and began to figure what the actual cost of the bargain would be when Bill had put it into goo

to supper. She would have taken it for granted that he had eaten down town. So, not to disappoint her, Bud did eat down town. Then Bill wanted him to go to a movie, and after a praiseworthy hesitation Bud yielded to