NINE DOLLARS A WEEK
The second day, I woke up lame and stiff but I gave myself a good
brisk rub down and kneaded my arm and leg muscles until they were
pretty well limbered up. The thing that pleased me was the way I felt
towards my new work that second morning. I'd been a bit afraid of a
reaction--of waking up with all the romance gone. That, I knew, would
be deadly. Once let me dwell on the naked material facts of my
condition and I'd be lost. That's true of course in any occupation.
The man who works without an inspiration of some sort is not only
discontented but a poor workman. I remember distinctly that when I
opened my eyes and realized my surroundings and traced back the
incidents of yesterday to the ditch, I was concerned principally with
the problem of a stone in our path upon which we had been working. I
wanted to get back to it. We had worked upon it for an hour without
fully uncovering it and I was as eager as the foreman to learn whether
it was a ledge rock or just a fragment. This interest was not
associated with the elevated road for whom the work was being done,
nor the contractor who had undertaken the job, nor the foreman who was
supervising it. It was a question which concerned only me and Mother
Earth who seemed to be doing her best to balk us at every turn. I
forgot the sticky, wet clay in which I had floundered for nine hours,
forgot the noisome stench which at times we were forced to breathe,
forgot my lame hands and back. I recalled only the problem itself and
the skill with which the man they called Anton' handled his crow bar.
He was a master of it. In removing the smaller slabs which lay around
the big one he astonished me with his knowledge of how to place the
bar. He'd come to my side where I was prying with all my strength and
with a wave of his hand for me to stand back, would adjust two or
three smaller rocks as a fulcrum and then, with the gentlest of
movements, work the half-ton weight inch by inch to where he wanted
it. He could swing the rock to the right or left, raise or lower it,
at will, and always he made the weight of the rock, against which I
had striven so vainly, do the work. That was something worth learning.
I wanted to get back and study him. I wanted to get back and finish
uncovering that rock. I wanted to get back and bring the job as a
whole to a finish so as to have a new one to tackle. Even at the end
of that first day I felt I had learned enough to make myself a man of
greater power than I was the day before. And always in the background
was the unknown goal to which this toil was to lead. I hadn't yet
stopped to figure out what the goal was but that it was worth while I
had no doubt for I was no longer stationary. I was a constructor. I
was in touch with a big enterprise of development.
I don't know that I've made myself clear. I wasn't very clear in my
own mind then but I know that I had a very conscious impression of the
sort which I've tried to put into words. And I know that it filled me
with a great big joy. I never woke up with any such feeling when with
the United Woollen. My only thought in the morning then was how much
time I must give myself to catch the six-thirty. When I reached the
office I hung up my hat and coat and sat down to the impersonal
figures like an automaton. There was nothing of me in the work; there
couldn't be. How petty it seemed now! I suppose the company, as an
industrial enterprise, was in the line of development, but that idea
never penetrated as far as the clerical department. We didn't feel it
any more than the adding machines do.
Ruth had a good breakfast for me and when I came into the kitchen she
was trying to brush the dried clay off my overalls.
"Good Heavens!" I said, "don't waste your strength doing that."
She looked up from her task with a smile.
"I'm not going to let you get slack down here" she said.
"But those things will look just as bad again five minutes after I've
gone down the ladder."
"But I don't intend they shall look like this on your way to the
ladder," she answered.
"All right," I said "then let me have them. I'll do it myself."
"Have you shaved?" she asked.
I rubbed my hand over my chin. It wasn't very bad and I'd made up my
mind I wouldn't shave every day now.
"No," I said. "But twice or three times a week--"
"Billy!" she broke in, "that will never do. You're going down to your
new business looking just as ship-shape as you went to the old. You
don't belong to that contractor; you belong to me."
In the meanwhile the boy came in with my heavy boots which he had
brushed clean and oiled. There was nothing left for me to do but to
shave and I'll admit I felt better for it.
"Do you want me to put on a high collar?" I asked.
"Didn't you find the things I laid out for you?"
I hadn't looked about. I'd put on the things I took off. She led me
back into the bed room, and over a chair I saw a clean change of
underclothing and a new grey flannel shirt.
"Where did you get this?" I asked.
"I bought it for a dollar," she answered. "It's too much to pay. I can
make one for fifty cents as soon as I get time to sew."
That's the way Ruth was. Every day after this she made me change,
after I came back from my swim, into the business suit I wore when I
came down here, and which now by contrast looked almost new. She even
made me wear a tie with my flannel shirt. Every morning I started out
clean shaven and with my work clothes as fresh as though I were a
contractor myself. I objected at first because it seemed too much for
her to do to wash the things every day, but she said it was a good
deal easier than washing them once a week. Incidentally that was one
of her own little schemes for saving trouble and it seemed to me a
good one; instead of collecting her soiled clothes for seven days and
then tearing herself all to pieces with a whole hard forenoon's work,
she washed a little every day. By this plan it took her only about an
hour each morning to keep all the linen in the house clean and sweet.
We had the roof to dry it on and she never ironed anything except
perhaps the tablecloths and handkerchiefs. We had no company to cater
to and as long as we knew things were clean that's all we cared.
We got around the rock all right. It proved not to be a ledge after
all. I myself, however, didn't accomplish as much as I did the first
day, for I was slower in my movements. On the other hand, I think I
improved a little in my handling of the crowbar. At the noon hour I
tried to start a conversation with Anton', but he understood little
English and I knew no Italian, so we didn't get far. As he sat in a
group of his fellow countrymen laughing and jabbering he made me feel
distinctly like an outsider. There were one or two English-speaking
workmen besides myself, but somehow they didn't interest me as much as
these Italians. It may have been my imagination but they seemed to me
a decidedly inferior lot. As a rule they were men who took the job
only to keep themselves from starving and quit at the end of a week or
two only to come back when they needed more money.
I must make an exception of an Irishman I will call Dan Rafferty. He
was a big blue-eyed fellow, full of fun and fight, with a good natured
contempt of the Dagoes, and was a born leader. I noticed, the first
day, that he came nearer being the boss of the gang than the foreman,
and I suspect the latter himself noticed it, for he seemed to have it
in for Dan. There never was an especially dirty job to be done but
what Dan was sent. He always obeyed but he used to slouch off with his
big red fist doubled up, muttering curses that brought out his brogue
at its best. Later on he confided in me what he was going to do to
that boss. If he had carried out his threats he would long since have
been electrocuted and I would have lost a good friend. Several times I
thought the two men were coming to blows but though Dan would have
dearly loved a fight and could have handled a dozen men like the
foreman, he always managed to control himself in time to avoid it.
"I don't wanter be after losin' me job for the dirthy spalpeen," he
growled to me.
But he came near it in a way he wasn't looking for later in the week.
It was Friday and half a dozen of us had been sent down to work on the
second level. It was damp and suffocating down there, fifty feet below
the street. I felt as though I had gone into the mines. I didn't like
it but I knew that there was just as much to learn here as above and
that it must all be learned eventually. The sides were braced with
heavy timbers like a mine shaft to prevent the dirt from falling in
and there was the constant danger that in spite of this it might cave
in. We went down by rough ladders made by nailing strips of board
across two pieces of joist and the work down there was back-breaking
and monotonous. We heaved the dirt into a big iron bucket lowered by
the hoisting engine above. It was heavy, wet soil that weighed like
lead.
From the beginning the men complained of headaches and one by one they
crawled up the ladder again for fresh air. Others were sent down but
at the end of an hour they too retreated. Dan and I stuck it out for a
while. Then I began to get dizzy myself. I didn't know what the
trouble was but when I began to wobble a bit Dan placed his hand on my
shoulder.
"Betther climb out o' here," he said. "I'm thinkin' it's gas."
At that time I didn't know what sewer gas was. I couldn't smell
anything and thought he must be mistaken.
"You'd better come too," I answered, making for the ladder.
He wasn't coming but I couldn't get up very well without him so he
followed along behind. At the top we found the foreman fighting mad
and trying to spur on another gang to go down. They wouldn't move.
When he saw us come up he turned upon Dan.
"Who ordered you out of there?" he growled.
"The gas," answered Dan.
"Gas be damned," shouted the foreman. "You're a bunch of white livered
cowards--all of you."
I saw Dan double up his fists and start towards the man. The latter
checked him with a command.
"Go back down there or you're fired," he said to him.
Dan turned red. Then I saw his jaws come together.
"Begod!" he answered. "_You_ shan't fire me, anyhow."
Without another word he started down the ladder again. I saw the
Italians crowd together and watch him. By that time my head was
clearer but my legs were weak. I sat down a moment uncertain what to
do. Then I heard someone shout:
"By God, he's right! He's lying there at the bottom."
I started towards the ladder but some one shoved me back. Then I
thought of the bucket. It was above ground and I staggered towards it
gaining strength at each step. I jumped in and shouted to the engineer
to lower me. He obeyed from instinct. I went down, down, down to what
seemed like the center of the earth. When the bucket struck the ground
I was dizzy again but I managed to get out, heave the unconscious Dan
in and pile on top of him myself. When I came to, I was in an
ambulance on my way to the hospital but by the time I had reached the
emergency room I had taken a grip on myself. I knew that if ever Ruth
heard of this she would never again be comfortable. When they took us
out I was able to walk a little. The doctors wanted to put me to bed
but I refused to go. I sat there for about an hour while they worked
over Dan. When I found that he would be all right by morning I
insisted upon going out. I had a bad headache, but I knew the fresh
air would drive this away and so it did, though it left me weak.
One of the hardest day's work I ever did in my life was killing time
from then until five o'clock. Of course the papers got hold of it and
that gave me another scare but luckily the nearest they came to my
name was Darlinton, so no harm was done. And they didn't come within a
mile of getting the real story. When in a later edition one of them
published my photograph I felt absolutely safe for they had me in a
full beard and thinner than I've ever been in my life.
When I came home at my usual time looking a bit white perhaps but
otherwise normal enough, the first question Ruth asked me was:
"What have you done with your dinner pail, Billy?"
Isn't a man always sure to do some such fool thing as that, when he's
trying to keep something quiet from the wife? I had to explain that I
had forgotten it and that was enough to excite suspicion at any time.
She kept me uneasy for ten minutes and the best I could do was to
admit finally that I wasn't feeling very well. Whereupon she made me
go to bed and fussed over me all the evening and worried all the next
day.
I reported for work as usual in the morning and found we had a new
foreman. It was a relief because I guess if Dan hadn't knocked down
the other one, someone else would have done it sooner or later. At
that the man had taught me something about sewer gas and that is when
you begin to feel dizzy fifty feet below the street, it's time to go
up the ladder about as fast as your wobbly legs will let you, even if
you don't smell anything.
Rafferty didn't turn up for two or three days. When he did appear it
was with a simple:
"Mawnin, mon."
It wasn't until several days later I learned that the late foreman had
left town nursing a black eye and a cut on one cheek such as might
have been made by a set of red knuckles backed by an arm the size of a
small ham.
On Saturday night of that first week I came home with nine dollars in
my pocket. I'll never be prouder again than I was when I handed them
over to Ruth. And Ruth will never again be prouder than she was when,
after she had laid aside three of them for the rent and five for
current expenses, she picked out a one-dollar bill and, crossing the
room, placed it in the ginger jar. This was a little blue affair in
which we had always dropped what pennies and nickels we could spare.
"There's our nest-egg," she announced.
"You don't mean to tell me you're that much ahead of the game the
first week?"
"Look here, Billy," she answered.
She brought out an itemized list of everything she had bought from
last Monday, including Sunday's dinner. I've kept that list. Many of
the things she had bought were not yet used up but she had computed
the cost of the amount actually used. Here it is as I copied it off:
Flour, .25
Lard, .15
Cream of tartar and soda, .05
Oat meal, .04
Molasses, .05
Sugar, .12
Potatoes, .20
Rice, .06
Milk, 1.12
Eggs, .24
Rye bread, .10
Sausages, .22
Lettuce, .03
Beans, .12
Salt pork, .15
Corn meal, .06
Graham meal, .05
Butter, .45
Cheese, .06
Shin of beef, .39
Fish, .22
Oil, .28
Soap, .09
Vinegar, salt and pepper, about .05
Can of corn, .07
Onions, .06
Total $4.68
In this account, too, Ruth was liberal in her margins. She did better
than this later on. A fairer estimate could have been made at the end
of the month and a still fairer even than that, at the end of the
year. It sounded almost too good to be true but it was a fact. We had
lived, and lived well on this amount and as yet Ruth was
inexperienced. She hadn't learned all she learned later. For the
benefit of those who may think we went hungry I have asked Ruth to
write out the bill of fare for this week as nearly as she can remember
it. One thing you must keep in mind is that of everything we had, we
had enough. Neither Ruth, the boy, nor myself ever left the table or
dinner pail unsatisfied. Here's what we had and it was better even
than it sounds for whatever Ruth made, she made well. I copy it as she
wrote it out.
Monday.
Breakfast: oatmeal, griddle-cakes with molasses, cream of tartar
biscuits, milk.
Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, bowl of
rice, cold coffee; for Dick and me: cold biscuits, milk, rice.
Dinner: baked potatoes, griddle-cakes, milk.
Tuesday.
Breakfast: baked potatoes, graham muffins, oatmeal, milk.
Luncheon: for Billy: cold muffins, two hard-boiled eggs, rice,
milk; for Dick and me: cold muffins, rice and milk.
Dinner: boiled potatoes, pork scraps, hot biscuits, milk.
Wednesday.
Breakfast: oatmeal, fried potatoes, warmed over biscuits.
Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, bread
pudding; for Dick and me: baked potatoes, cold biscuits, bread
pudding.
Dinner: beef stew with dumplings, hot biscuits, milk.
Thursday.
Breakfast: fried sausages, baked potatoes, graham muffins, milk.
Luncheon: for Billy: cold muffins, cold sausage and rice; for Dick
and me: the same.
Dinner: warmed over stew, lettuce, hot biscuits, milk.
Friday.
Breakfast: oatmeal, fried rock cod, baked potatoes, rye bread,
milk.
Luncheon: for Billy: rye bread, potato salad, rice; for Dick and
me: the same.
Dinner: soup made from stock of beef, left over fish, boiled
potatoes, rice, milk.
Saturday.
Breakfast: oatmeal, fried corn mush with molasses, milk.
Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, cheese,
rice; for Dick and me: German toast.
Dinner: baked beans, hot biscuits.
Sunday.
Breakfast: baked beans, graham muffins.
Dinner: boiled potatoes, pork scraps, canned corn, corn cake,
bread pudding.
A word about that bread pudding. Ruth tells me she puts in an extra
quart of milk and then bakes it all day when she bakes her beans,
stirring it every now and then. I never knew before how the trick was
done but it comes out a rich brown and tastes like plum pudding
without the raisins. She says that if you put in raisins it tastes
exactly like a plum pudding.
So at the end of the first week I found myself with eighty dollars
left over from the old home, one dollar saved in the new, all my bills
paid, and Ruth, Dick and myself all fit as a fiddle.