Homer Greene

“ Tom could give no explanation of the matter, except that the man must have been one of the strikers. The meaning of his strange conduct he could no more understand than could Bennie.
It was a long way up the slope, and for more than half the distance it was very steep; like climbing up a ladder. Many times on the upward way the boys stopped to rest. Always when he heard Bennie’s breathing grow hard and laborious, Tom would complain of being himself tired, and they would turn about and sit for a few moments on a tie, facing down the slope. ”

“ To sit for hours with only one’s thoughts for company, and with the oppressive silence broken only at long intervals by the passing trips, this alone is enough to cast gloom upon the spirits of the most cheerful.
But something more than this was weighing upon Bennie’s mind, for he told Tom, when they had done eating, that every time it grew still around him, and there were no cars in the heading or airway, and no noises to break the silence, he could hear, somewhere down below him, the “working” of the mine. ”

“ The Dryden Mine, in the Susquehanna coal-fields of Pennsylvania, was worked out and abandoned long ago. To-day its headings and airways and chambers echo only to the occasional fall of loosened slate, or to the drip of water from the roof. Its pillars, robbed by retreating workmen, are crumbling and rusty, and those of its props which are still standing have become mouldy and rotten. The rats that once scampered through its galleries deserted it along with human kind, and its very name, from long disuse, has acquired an unaccustomed sound. ”

“ But Tom was a brave lad, and he put on a bright face before these two, and told them of his trip to Wilkesbarre, and about what he had seen and heard,—about the law-office, about Pleadwell and Carolan, about every thing, indeed, but the bargain and the money.
He tried to eat his supper as if he enjoyed it, though every mouthful seemed about to choke him, and on the plea of being very tired, he went early to bed. There he lay half the night debating with his conscience, trying to make himself believe that he had done right, yet feeling [60] all the time that he had stooped to dishonor. ”

“ There was no quality of human goodness, or bravery, or excellence of any kind, that he did not ascribe to Tom. He would sooner have disbelieved all of his four remaining senses than have believed that Tom would say an unkind word to Mommie or to him, or be guilty of a mean act towards any one.
[21]
Bennie’s faith in Tom was fully justified. No nineteenth century boy could have been more manly, no knight of old could have been more true and tender, than was Tom to the two beings whom he loved best upon all the earth. ”

“ Then they sat down on the rude bench together, with the roughly hewn pillar of coal at their backs, blind Bennie and Jack Rennie, the giant, and while one told the story of his blindness, and his blessings, and his hopes, the other listened with tender earnestness, almost with tears.
Bennie told first about Tom, his brother, who was fourteen years old, two years older than himself. Tom was so good to him; and Tom could see, could see as well as anybody. “Why,” he exclaimed, “Tom can see every thing!” ”

“ Yet Tom nursed his hope, and fought off the drowsiness that oppressed him, and tried to care for Bennie.
The blind boy had got beyond caring for himself. He no longer heard the sounds of rescue. Once he turned partly on his side.
“Yes, Mommie,” he whispered, “yes, I see it; ain’t it pretty!” Then, after a pause, “O Mommie, how beautiful—how beautiful—it is—to see!”
Tap, tap, thud, came the sounds of rescue through the rock and coal.
Tap, tap, thud; but, oh, how the moments lagged; how the deadly gas increased; how the sharp teeth of hunger gnawed; how feebly burned the flame of the little lamp ”

“ And Tom was thrice happy, in that he had rolled away the burden of an accusing conscience, and felt the high pleasure that [114] nothing else on earth can so fully bring as the sense of duty done, against the frowning face and in the threatening teeth of danger.
Sometimes, indeed, there came upon him a sudden fear of the vengeance he might meet at Rennie’s hands; but as the days passed by this fear disturbed him less and less, and the buoyancy of youth preserved him from depressing thoughts of danger. ”

“ At some points in the heading, the rescuing parties found the rock and coal wedged in so solidly that the opening of a few feet was the work of an hour; again, the huge blocks and slabs were piled up, irregularly; and, again, there would be short distances that were wholly clear.
But no matter what these miners met, their work never for one moment ceased nor lagged. They said little; men do not talk much under a pressure like that; but every muscle was tense, every sense on the alert; they were at the supreme height of physical effort. ”

“ Over in the little valley to the south lay the ruins of the burned breaker, still untouched; and off upon the other side, one could see the sparkling Susquehanna far up into the narrow valley where its waters sweep around the base of Campbell’s Ledge; across to the blue mountains on the west; and down the famous valley of Wyoming, with its gray stone monument in the middle distance, until the eastern hills crept in to intercept the view. ”

“ He passed down the airway, and out by the entrance where blind Bennie lay, still sleeping, and stopped [141] and looked tenderly down upon him, as men look, for the last time in life, on those whom they love.
He bent over, holding his heavy beard back against his breast, and touched the tangled hair on the child’s forehead with his lips; and then, weak, staggering, with the shadow of his fate upon him, he passed out on the heading, and up into the new chambers, where the poisoned air was heavy with the deadly gas, and the lamp-flame scarcely left the wick ”

“ Lawyer Pleadwell inserted a thumb into the arm-hole of his vest, and poised his glasses carefully in his free hand. He was preparing to argue the case with Tom.
“Suppose,” said he, “you were a miner, as you hope to be, as your father was before you; and a brutal and soulless corporation, having reduced your wages to the starvation-point, while its vaults were [46] gorged with money, should kick you, like a dog, out of their employ, when you humbly asked them for enough to keep body and soul together. ”

“ Before Sandy turned in at his door, Tom had disappeared below the brow of the hill. The loose gravel rolled under his feet as he hurried down, and once, near the bottom, he slipped and fell.
As he rose, he was astonished to see the figure of a man steal carefully along in [37] the shadow of the breaker, and disappear around the corner by the engine-room.
Tom went down cautiously into the shadow, and stopped for a moment in the track by the loading-place to listen. He thought he heard a noise in there; something that sounded like the snapping of dry twigs. ”

“ Tom stopped, literally panting for breath. The jurors were leaning forward in their seats to catch every word, and over among the crowded benches, where the friends of the prisoner were gathered, there was a confused hum of voices, from which, now and then, rose angry and threatening words. ”

“ It roused the curiosity of “Jack the Giant,” as the miners called him, and, plucking his lamp from his cap, he flashed the light of it up into Bennie’s face.
The boy did not stir; no muscle of his face moved; even his eyes remained open and fixed.
[16]
“Why, lad! lad! What’s the matter wi’ ye?” There was tenderness in the giant’s voice as he spoke, and tenderness in his bearded face as Bennie answered,—
“Don’t you know? I’m blind.”
“Blind! An’ a-workin’ i’ the mines?”
“Oh, a body don’t have to see to ’tend door, you know. ”

“ The sound of his voice awakened Tom, who had slept for some hours, and who now arose and began again his monotonous walk up and down the heading.
After a while, Jack motioned to him to come and sit beside him on the bench.
“I ha’ summat to say to ye,” he said. Then, with a glance at the sleeping boy, “Come ye up the airway a bit.”
The two walked up the airway a short distance, and sat down on a broken prop by the side of the track.
“Tom,” said Jack, after a moment or two of silence, “it’s a-goin’ hard wi’ us. ”

“ Tom, he’s goin’ to get a [20] chamber an’ be a miner, an’ I’m goin’ to be Tom’s laborer till I learn how to mine, an’ then we’re goin’ to take a contract together, an’ hire laborers, an’ get rich, an’ then—why, then Mommie won’t have to work any more!”
It was like a glimpse of a better world to hear this boy talk. The most favored child of wealth that ever revelled seeing in the sunlight has had no hope, no courage, no sublimity of faith, that could compare with those of this blind son of poverty and toil. ”

“ But among the many men who helped to save this little, none labored with such energetic effort, such daring zeal, such superhuman strength, as the huge-framed, big-bearded man they called Jack Rennie.
The strike had become general. The streets of the mining towns were filled with idle, loitering men and boys. The drinking [41] saloons drove a brisk business, and the merchants feared disaster. Tom had not told any one as yet of his adventure at the breaker on the night of the fire. ”

“ Tom had never been in a court-room before, and he looked with much interest at the judges on the bench, at the lawyers chatting pleasantly in the bar, at the entry and departure of the grand jury, and at the officious constables, each with his staff of office, who kept order in the court-room. ”

“ Suppose you knew that the laws were made for the rich and against the poor, as they are, and that your only redress, and a speedy one, would be to spoil the property of your persecutors till they came to treat you like a human being, with rights to be respected, as they surely would, for they fear nothing so much as the torch; would you think it right for a fellow-workman to deliver you up to their vengeance and fury for having taught them such a lesson? ”

“ The lawyer placed his glasses on his nose, and leaned forward, eagerly, towards Tom.
The argument was not without its effect. Tom had long been led to believe that corporations were tyrannical monsters. But the boy’s inherent sense of right and wrong was proof against even this specious plea.
“All the same,” he said, “I can’t make out ’at it’s right to burn a breaker. Why,” [47] he continued, “you might say the same thing if it’d ’a been murder.”
Pleadwell saw that he was on the wrong track with this clear-headed boy. ”

“ But, twenty years ago, miners who kept at work against the wishes of their fellows while a strike was in progress, were called “black-legs,” were treated with contempt, waylaid and beaten, and sometimes killed.
So the men in the Dryden Mine yielded; and soon, down the chambers and along the headings, toward the foot of the slope, came little groups, with dinner-pails and tools, discussing earnestly, often bitterly, the situation and the prospect. ”

“ The sound of working pillars is familiar to frequenters of the mines, and is the well-known warning which precedes a fall. The remedy is to place wooden props beneath the roof for additional support, and, if this is not done, there comes a time, sooner or later, when the strained pillars suddenly give way, and the whole mass comes crashing down, to fill the gangways and chambers over an area as great as that through which the working extended, [117] and to block the progress of mining for an indefinite time.
Tom had been too long about the mines to be ignorant of all this, and so had Bennie ”

“ Down the heading the retreating footsteps echoed, their sound swallowed up at last in the distance; and up at Bennie’s doorway silence reigned.
For a long time the boy sat, pondering the meaning of the strange man’s words and conduct. But the more he thought about it the less able was he to understand it. Perhaps Tom could explain it, though; yes, he would tell Tom about it. Then it occurred to him that it was long past time [25] for Tom to come up from the foot with his last trip for the day. It was strange, too, that the men should all go out together that way ”

“ The grinding noise of settling rock came up from the region of the fall, and then, for many minutes, the silence was unbroken.
After a while, Jack said, “Put the money where they’ll find it on ye, gin ye—gin ye don’t get oot.”
Then he rose to his feet again.
“You’re not goin’ to leave us?” said Tom.
“Yes, lad, I mus’ go. It’s the way wi’ hunger, sometimes, to mak’ a man crazy till he’s not knowin’ what he does. Ye s’all no ha’ that to fear fra me. Tom,” grasping the boy, suddenly, by both hands, “don’t come up into the new chambers, Tom; promise me!” ”