Burton Egbert Stevenson

“ Tommy mounted the steps of the cabin to the little porch in front, and paused for a backward glance down into the valley. The mountains had deepened from green to purple, and the eddying clouds of mist showed sharply against this dark background. The river splashed merrily along, a ribbon of silver at the bottom of the valley. The kindly night had hidden all the marks of man’s handiwork along its banks, and the scene was wholly beautiful. ”

“ GOOD-BY TO NEW RIVER VALLEY
The passing days dulled somewhat her memory of the terrors of the mine, and brought her to a truer view of it than had been possible in those first moments. After all, she reflected, there is none of the great, strenuous occupations of life which has not its peculiar dangers. The sailor, the engineer, the builder, the fireman—each must look death boldly in the face at times, and each, no doubt, comes strengthened out of the hour of trial. ”

“ Hard labor and mountain air are rare appetizers, and for a time they ate in silence. At last Johnny, having taken the edge off his hunger, began to relate the story of his thrilling encounter with the snake, and even his mother was betrayed into a smile as she looked at his dancing eyes. Tommy, who had been vainly striving to muster up courage to broach the subject nearest his heart, saw his father’s face soften, and judged it a good time to begin. ”

“ Along the center of the gangway a row of heavy props had been placed to support the roof and render it quite safe. As they went on, Bessie Andrews began to think it all some dreadful illusion. Mules loomed up suddenly before her; swarthy faces, with no apparent bodies, gleamed for an instant out of the darkness; a constant rumble of cars was in her ears; the lamps sputtered and flared in the strong air-current, and seemed each instant about to go out and leave them in darkness—such a darkness as exists nowhere else. ”

“ It is difficult, perhaps, for a boy brought up, as most boys are, within sound of a school bell, where school-going begins inevitably in the earliest years, where every one he knows can read and write as a matter of course, and where books and papers form part of the possessions of every household, to understand the awe with which Tommy Remington thought over the task he was about to undertake. ”

“ But the black openings yawning here and there in the mountain-side frightened her; they called into life weird imaginings; it seemed so terrible to walk back into them, away from the air and the sunlight.
“Why,” laughed Lambert, reading her thoughts in her face, “to look at you one would think you could never hope to get out alive! There hasn’t been an accident—a really bad accident—in our mine for over eight years. It’s perfectly safe or I wouldn’t ask you to go. A coal-mine is a mighty interesting thing to see, Miss Bessie.” ”

“ It is the half-backs and the full-back who make the so-called “grand-stand plays”—those long, zigzagging runs down the field with the ball which raise the spectators out of their seats, and send flags to waving and men to shouting. The average looker-on, knowing little of the inwardness of the game, does not appreciate the hard work which the men in the line are doing every minute of the time—there is nothing showy about it, nothing spectacular; it is merely downright hard work. So Tommy, knowing that this would be his one chance, determined to make the most of it. ”

“ To the miner that daily journey into the darkness becomes one of life’s commonplaces, and is in no way nerve-disturbing—just as the master-builder will walk calmly and unhesitatingly across a narrow beam high in air, where another man would falter and grow sick.
And then the work, warm under her hand, was growing ever more absorbing, for the task of building up Tommy’s education had begun in earnest. In this she found the minister a devoted helper. How carefully the boy’s studies were mapped out between them! ”

“ Through the window he could see the crowd hurrying to and fro along the platform. A train puffed in on the adjoining track and disgorged its living freight. Great trucks, piled high with baggage, were wheeled by. Then came the far-away voice of the conductor, a scurrying of belated passengers, and the train glided slowly out of the station. Evening had come, and along the streets the electric lamps sprang suddenly alight. Great crowds of men and women were leaving the government buildings, with one more day’s labor accomplished. ”

“ Every afternoon, after that, Tommy donned his canvas suit, and soon began to have a fair idea of the game. Blake put his strongest man opposite him, and the remainder of the boys would throng the side-lines to see Remington and Smith fight it out. Both were unusually strong for their age,—Smith had been reared on a great cattle-ranch in the West,—and as it was nip and tuck between them, both grew stronger and better players, while Blake contemplated them with satisfaction, and congratulated himself on possessing the best pair of guards that had ever played together on a Lawrenceville team. ”

“ So little was said as they stood on the platform and waited for the train.
Miss Andrews and the minister kept up a desultory talk, but the gloom extended even to them. It is always a venturesome thing to take a boy from the sphere in which he is born and the environment in which he has grown up, and attempt to launch him upon some other plane of life. The responsibility of those who try to shape the lives of others is no little one, nor is it to be undertaken lightly. ”

“ There was no more question of working in the mine in the afternoon. His father labored there without a helper, doing two men’s work, blasting down the coal and then loading it on the cars—at what a sacrifice no one unacquainted with the mines can understand. For there is a great social gulf between the miner and the laborer: each has his certain work to do, and does only that. ”

“ The unusual thickness of the seams of coal, their accessibility, and the ease with which the coal could be got to market, together with the purity and value of the coal itself, all combined to render it possible for the miner to make good wages, and for a time Remington prospered—as much, that is, as a coal-miner can ever prosper, which means merely that he can provide his family with shelter from the cold, with enough to eat, and with clothes to wear, and at the same time keep out of debt. ”

“ Tommy remembered the advice little Reeves had given him, and sprang full at his opponent at the instant he stooped to the tackle. Together they were hurled to earth, Tommy clutching the ball with a grip only death would have loosened. He tried to hitch himself along toward the goal-post just ahead—so near he could almost touch it. He gained a foot—two feet—a yard—with those desperate hands still clinging to his legs; and then, just as a crushing avalanche of men fell on him, he stretched the ball forward at full-arm length and called:
“Down!” ”

“ But the discovery of new fields and the ever-growing competition for the market had gradually tended to decrease wages until they were again almost at the point where one man could not support a family, and his boys—mere children sometimes—went into the mines with him to assist in the struggle for existence—the younger ones as drivers of the mine mules, which hauled the coal to “daylight,” the older ones as laborers in the chambers where their fathers blasted it down from the great seams. ”

“ To be sure, if one leaned forward in his chair, a glimpse might be had of the mouth of a coal-mine high up on the hillside, and his sister said that it was to look at this that Jabez sat on the back porch. It seemed likely enough, for it was from that drift that he had drawn enough money to make his remaining years comfortable. Jabez Smith had come into these mountains while they were yet a wilderness, unknown, or almost so, to white men, save where the highroads crossed them scores of miles apart. ”

“ He wondered how any one could ever stand it—how he had stood it and prospered as much as he had. He was never ashamed of his parents, though he never spoke of them to his classmates; it was only the home that shamed him, and he resolved to rescue the family from it and plant them in cleaner soil.
A week is not a long time when it comes to whipping a football team into shape for a great game, and that one passed all too quickly for Blake. ”

“ He had read somewhere that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones, but he had very much doubted if any one really lived in a glass house. Yet here was unmistakably a glass house, so perhaps people did live in them, after all. But they were past before he could reason this out any farther, and another tremendous stone building loomed ahead.
“That’s the War Department and the Navy,” said the motorman. “It’s the largest office building in the world.”
Tommy looked, and with beating heart saw two cannon frowning at him. But he had only a glimpse of them and the car had whirled by. ”

“ It seemed certain that Lawrenceville must score, and their partisans cheered themselves hoarse. But Princeton made a stand on her ten-yard line, rendered desperate by prospect of defeat, succeeded in getting the ball, and, by a long punt down the field, placed her goal out of danger. How Princeton cheered as that ball sailed twisting through the air!
For a time after that it was nip and tuck in the middle of the field, and, as the minutes passed, Blake knew that the time for play was getting dangerously short. If anything was to be done, it must be done without delay. ”

“ Tommy obligingly held out his arm and made the biceps swell.
“Hard as a rock,” said Jack, fingering it with great respect. “You must have been in training all your life.”
“In training?” repeated Tommy. “I don’t know. I’ve been digging coal pretty near all my life.”
Jack gave a low whistle of astonishment.
“Digging coal? In a mine? Well, I’d dig coal for a year if I could get a pair of shoulders like yours. You’re just the man we need for guard.” ”

“ The miner and his wife sat staring with starting eyes at the speaker.
“But—but nobody ever read ’em all!” gasped the latter.
“Certainly no one man ever read them all.” And the minister smiled again. “But any man may read and understand a great part of the best of them. Tommy might, if he had the chance.”
Tommy sat suddenly bolt upright in his chair, and the blood flew to his face.
“Th’ chance?” repeated his mother, slowly. “What d’ you mean by th’ chance, Mr. Bayliss?” ”

“ He took advantage of the first opportunity, during a moment’s intermission while one of the boys was rubbing a twisted ankle, to outline his plan.
“Now, Remington,” he said in a whisper, “I’m going to let you run with the ball. We’ll push it as far down the field as we can, then, after the third down, Reeves, here, will pass it to you. Put all your steam into your legs, old man. I’ll give the other boys the word.”
Tommy went back to his place with a queer tingling at his heart. Ordinarily the men in the line do not get a chance so to distinguish themselves. ”

“ Nothing would compensate for failure in your classes—not even the applause of the football field. But I can readily understand how much the decision must have cost you, and I think I can foresee how it will affect the bearing of your classmates toward you, for school-boys sometimes have a very exaggerated and false notion of school honor. Concerning this last, let me give you a word of advice. Next to success in study, there is no more precious thing in college life than class friendship. ”

“ Sexton’s face grew red.
“No, I won’t cut you,” he said. “But lots of the fellows will. They’ll make it as hard for you as they can.”
Tommy’s lips went together. His fighting spirit was aroused.
“Let them,” he said. “I’ve made up my mind. I can’t see but one thing to do, and I’m going to do it. Tell Blake I’m sorry.”
Sexton’s face grew stern, too, and he got up from his seat.
“Is that final?” he asked. “Remember, Blake won’t send for you a second time. He’s not that kind.” ”

“ Why, even none of th’ men kin—none I know.”
“Oh, yes, you could!” she cried. “Any one can. The reason none of the other boys can is because they have never tried, and the men probably never had a good chance. Of course you can’t learn if you don’t try. But it’s not at all difficult, when one really wants to learn. If you’ll only come and let me teach you!”
He glanced again at her face and then out across the valley. The shadows were deepening along the river, and above the trees upon the mountain-side great columns of white mist circled slowly upward. ”

“ For them it was only to dive deep into the earth and drag forth the black treasure that had been entombed there, to send it forth to warm and light the world and to move the wheels of industry—to do this at the sacrifice of health and strength and happiness, and, worse than all, of intellect. ”

“ Yet I think that in a few more years mining will be no more dangerous than any other manual labor. Every year, almost, some new step is taken to lessen its dangers, and I believe I shall live to see the time when every mine will be lighted from end to end with electricity, and the hardest part of the work will be done by steam, or compressed air, or some other power. ”

“ Suppose you do fall behind in your studies for a while. The tutors won’t be hard on you, because they know how you’re needed on the team, and you can make it all up again later in the year by a little extra work. There’ll be a dozen of the fellows ready to help you. But if you drop out of the team now, just when the games are coming on, it’s all up with you at Lawrenceville. The only fellow who can possibly play in your place is Banker, and you know how weak he is. It’s Lawrenceville’s honor that’s concerned, old man, and if you quit now, half the fellows in the place will cut you dead. ”

“ Every graduating class plants a piece at commencement; it’s one of the big exercises, with an oration and all that. The fellows here have great times, I tell you. We must come over some evening next spring and hear the senior singing; the whole class sits on the steps there, and sometimes the banjo and mandolin clubs come out too. Can you sing?”
“No,” said Tommy, “I can’t sing.”
“It’s a great thing to get on the glee club. But no matter; you’re certain to make the football team, and that’s better yet. Nothing’s too good for you if you’re on the team. ”

“ To the men, roughened by labor in the mines and by year-long contact with the unlovely side of life, this delicate and gentle girl was singularly attractive, and their voices instinctively took a softer tone than usual when they spoke to her. ”