LADIES IN THE MINE--HARRY MULE'S SAD MISHAP
When Derrick awoke the next morning, at an unusually early hour, it was
with the impression that some great pleasure was in store for him.
Before breakfast he went down into the mine to give Harry Mule's sleek
coat an extra rub, and to arrange for another boy and mule to take their
places that day.
At eight o'clock he presented himself at the door of Mr. Jones's house,
dressed in clean blue blouse and overalls, but wearing his
smoke-blackened cap and the heavy boots that are so necessary in the wet
underground passages of a mine. The mine boss had already gone to Mauch
Chunk, and Miss Nellie was watching behind some half-closed shutters for
the appearance of their young guide.
"Here he is, mamma!" she exclaimed, as she finally caught sight of
Derrick. "How funnily he is dressed! but what a becoming suit it is! it
makes him look so much more manly. Why don't he ring the bell, I wonder?
He's standing staring at the door as though he expected it to open of
itself. Ahem! _ahem!_"
This sound, coming faintly to Derrick's ear, seemed to banish his
hesitation, for the next instant the bell was rung furiously. The truth
is he had been seized with another diffident fit, and had it not been
broad daylight he would probably have walked back and forth in front of
the door several times before screwing up his courage to the
bell-ringing point.
The door was opened before the bell had stopped jingling, and an anxious
voice inquired, "Is it fire?" Then Miss Nellie, apparently seeing the
visitor for the first time, exclaimed, with charming simplicity,
"Oh no! Excuse me. I see it's only you, Mr. Sterling. How stupid of me!
Won't you walk in? I thought perhaps it was something serious."
"Only I, and I wish it was somebody else," thought bashful Derrick, as,
in obedience to this invitation, he stepped inside the door. Leaving him
standing there, Miss Mischief ran up-stairs to tell her mother, in so
loud a tone that he could plainly hear her, that Mr. Sterling had come
for them, and was evidently in an awful hurry.
"I'm in for a perfectly horrid time," said poor Derrick to himself. "I
can see plain enough that she means to make fun of me all day."
Mrs. Halford's kind greeting and ready tact made the boy feel more at
ease, and before they reached the new breaker--the first place to which
he carried them--he felt that perhaps he might not be going to have such
a very unpleasant day after all.
Both Mrs. Halford and Miss Nellie were greatly interested in watching
the machinery of the breaker and the quick work of the slate-picker
boys; but in spite of the jigs and the wet chutes the coal-dust was so
thick that they did not feel able to remain there more than a few
minutes.
As they came out Mrs. Halford said, "Poor little fellows! What a
terribly hard life they must lead!"
"Yes, Mamma, it's awful," said Miss Nellie. "And don't they look just
like little negro minstrels? I don't see, though, how they ever tell the
slate from the coal. It all looks exactly alike to me."
"The slate isn't so black as the coal," explained Derrick, "and doesn't
have the same shine."
They walked out over the great dump, and the ladies were amazed at its
extent.
"Why, it seems as if every bit of slate, and coal too, ever dug in the
mine must be piled up here!" exclaimed Miss Nellie.
"Oh no," said Derrick, "only about half the product of the mine is
waste, and only part of that comes up here. A great quantity is dumped
into the old breasts down in the workings to fill them up, and at the
same time to get rid of it easily."
"But isn't there a great deal of coal that would burn in this mountain
of refuse?" asked the girl.
"Yes, indeed, there is; and sometimes the piles get on fire, and then
they seem to burn forever."
"I have an acquaintance in Philadelphia," said Mrs. Halford, "who has
been trying experiments with the dust of these waste heaps. He pressed
it in egg-shaped moulds, and has succeeded in making capital stove coal
from it. The process is at present too expensive to be profitable, but I
have no doubt that cheaper methods will be discovered, and that within a
few years these culm piles will become valuable."
"What's the use of bothering with it when there's an inexhaustible
supply of coal in the ground?" asked Miss Nellie.
"But there isn't," answered Derrick. "This coal region only covers a
limited area, and some time every bit of fuel will be taken out of it. I
have heard that it is the only place in the world where anthracite has
been found. Isn't it, Mrs. Halford?"
"I believe so," answered that lady; "or at least the only place in which
anthracite of such fine quality as this has been discovered. Inferior
grades of hard coal are mined in several other localities, and
bituminous or soft coal exists almost everywhere."
From the culm pile they went to see the great pumping-engine, and the
huge fans that act as lungs to the mine, constantly forcing out the foul
air and compelling fresh to enter it. Then, as the day was growing warm,
they did not care to go any farther, but went back towards the house to
prepare for their descent into the mine.
On their way they stopped to call on Mrs. Sterling at Derrick's home,
which, covered with its climbing vines, offered a pleasing contrast to
the unpainted, bare-looking houses lining the village street beyond it.
Here both Mrs. Halford and Miss Nellie were greatly interested in Bill
Tooley, of whom they had already heard. He could not be induced to enter
into conversation with them, merely answering, "yes, 'm" or "no, 'm" to
their questions; but from what he said after they had gone he evidently
thought their call was intended solely for him. For a long time he
cherished it in his memory, and often spoke of it as a most wonderful
event.
Derrick took this opportunity to secure his lunch-pail and water-can,
which he slung by their chains over his shoulder. When the ladies had
prepared themselves for their mine expedition, he was amused to see that
Miss Nellie was similarly equipped, she having found and appropriated
those belonging to her uncle. Both the ladies wore old dresses, and
India-rubber boots, which they had brought with them for this very
purpose, and both were provided with waterproof cloaks.
At the mouth of the slope Derrick said something through a speaking-tube
that reached down into the mine. Directly the clang of a gong was heard
in the breaker above them, and the great wire cable, extending its vast
length between the rails of the tracks, began to move. Two minutes later
a new coal-car, one of a lot that had been delivered in the mine the day
before, and had not yet been used, was drawn up out of the blackness to
the mouth of the slope, and stopped in front of them. Some hay had been
thrown into the bottom, and as the ladies were helped in, Miss Nellie
exclaimed that it looked as though they were going on a straw-ride.
Handing each of them a lighted lantern to carry, and lighting the lamp
on his cap, Derrick tugged at the wire leading to the distant
engine-room, and gave the signal to lower. The car at once began to
move, and as they felt themselves going almost straight down into the
blackness between the wet, glistening walls of the slope, and were
chilled by the cold breath of the mine, the mother and daughter clung to
each other apprehensively.
At first they looked back and watched the little patch of daylight at
the mouth of the slope grow rapidly smaller and more indistinct, until
it looked almost like a star. Then Derrick warned them that there was
danger of hitting their heads against the low roof, and said they must
hold them below the sides of the car. When next they lifted them they
were amid the wonders of the underground world, in the great chamber at
the foot of the slope. They were surrounded by a darkness that was only
made the more intense at a short distance from them by the glimmering
lights of a group of miners who had gathered to watch their arrival.
Here Derrick left them while he ran to the stable to get his mule.
The ladies did not get out of the car, but stood in it after the cable
had been cast off, and watched the loaded coal-wagons as, one at a time,
they were pushed to the foot of the slope, and quickly drawn up out of
sight. During this interval their eyes gradually became accustomed to
the lamp-lit darkness, so that they could see much better than at first.
In a few minutes their young guide returned, leading Harry Mule, whose
swinging collar-lamp and wondering expression struck Miss Nellie as so
comical that she could not help laughing at him.
"Haw! he-haw, he-haw, he-haw!" brayed Harry Mule, in answer to the
unaccustomed sound; and at this greeting the girl laughed more heartily
than ever.
The mule was hitched to the car, Derrick sprang in front, cracked the
whip that had hung about his neck, and they started on what, to two of
them at least, was the most novel ride they had ever undertaken.
When they reached his stable Harry Mule stopped short and refused to go
on.
"What is the matter?" asked Miss Nellie.
"I expect he wants us to go in and see his house," answered Derrick.
"Why, I never heard of such a funny mule. Do you suppose he knows we are
visitors?"
"Of course he does," answered the boy, gravely; "and he knows that
visitors always want to see the mine stable."
So they all went in to look at it. In the long, low, narrow chamber,
hewn from solid rock, were thirty stalls. Several of them were occupied
by spare mules, who turned an inquiring gaze at the visitors, and
blinked in the light of their lanterns. At one end were bales of hay and
bags of oats, while just outside the door stood a long water-trough,
which, as mine water is unfit for use, was supplied from above-ground
through iron pipes brought down the slope. In spite of living in a
continual midnight, so far from pastures and the light of day, which
some of them did not see from one year's end to another, these mine
mules were fat and sleek, and appeared perfectly contented with their
lot.
Apparently satisfied that justice had been done to his place of abode,
Harry Mule offered no further objection to moving on, when they again
got into the car, and the stable was quickly left behind.
By-and-by Derrick called out "Door!"
As it opened for them to pass, and Paul Evert recognized his friend, he
cried, "Oh, Derrick, Socrates--" Then seeing the visitors, he stopped
abruptly, and stared at them in confusion.
"Never mind, Polly; we'll be back pretty soon," shouted Derrick, as the
car rolled on, "and then you can tell us all about it."
"What did he say?" inquired Mrs. Halford.
"I didn't quite understand," replied Derrick; "but, if you don't mind,
we'll go back there after a while and eat our lunch with Polly--he'd be
so pleased!--and then we'll ask him."
"Who is Polly?" asked Miss Nellie.
"He's Paul Evert, my best friend, and he's a cripple."
"Oh, he's the boy you saved from the burning breaker! Yes, indeed,
mamma, let's go back and eat our lunch with him."
Mrs. Halford agreed to this, and after they had visited the blacksmith's
shop, where a cheery young fellow named Aleck was installed in Job
Taskar's place, they went back to Paul's station.
Both the ladies were charmed with the gentle simplicity and quaintness
of the crippled lad, and he thought he had never been so happy as in
acting the part of host to this underground picnic party. He showed them
all the strange and beautiful pictures on the walls of the gangway, and
Derrick managed to break off for them a couple of thin scales of slate
on which were impressed the delicate outlines of fern leaves.
Mrs. Halford sat in Paul's arm-chair, and he made a bench of the
tally-board for Miss Nellie. The two boys were content to sit on the
railway track, and each ate out of his or her own lunch-pail.
All at once Paul said, "'Sh! There they are! See!"
At this the visitors looked in the direction indicated, and both
screamed.
"Oh, you've frightened them away!" said Paul, regretfully.
"Why, I do believe they were rats!" cried Mrs. Halford, in a tone of
great surprise.
"Of course they were," answered Paul--"my rat Socrates and Mrs. Socrates
and a whole lot of little Soc rats. I meant to tell you, Derrick; he
brought them out this morning, his wife and a family of such cunning
little fellows."
When the ladies had heard the whole story of Socrates the rat, and how
wise he was, they became greatly interested, and wished he would appear
again.
"He will," said Paul, "if we only keep quiet. He's too wise to stay away
at lunch-time, but he don't like loud talking."
So they all kept very quiet, and sure enough the rat did come back after
a little while, and sitting upon his hind-legs, gravely surveyed the
party. In the gloom behind him could be seen the shining beady eyes of
some members of his family, who made comical attempts to sit up as he
did.
Being duly fed, they all scampered away with squeaks of thanks, and soon
afterwards Harry Mule broke up the picnic by coming jingling back from
his stable, to which he had been sent for dinner.
"I think he is just the very dearest old mule I ever saw," said Miss
Nellie, when they were once more seated in the car, and Harry, was
taking them towards a distant heading.
"Yes, indeed, he is," answered Derrick, proud to hear his mule thus
praised; "and I love him as much as--as he loves me," he finished, with
a laugh.
They spent several hours in visiting different parts of the mine, and
becoming acquainted with all the details of its many operations. At the
end of one heading they found the miners who had just finished drilling
a hole deep in the wall of coal beyond them, and were about to fire a
blast. The visitors were intensely interested in watching their
operations. First a cartridge of stiff brown paper and powder was made.
The paper was rolled into the shape of a long cylinder, about as big
round as a broom-handle, the end of a fuse was inserted in the powder
with which it was filled, and the cartridge was thrust into the hole
just prepared for it. Then it was tamped with clay, the fuse was
lighted, the miners uttered loud cries of "Blast ho!" and everybody ran
away to a safe distance.
In less than a minute came a dull roar that echoed and re-echoed through
the long galleries. It was followed by a great upheaval of coal, a dense
cloud of smoke, and the blast was safely over.
These miners had a loaded car ready to be hauled away. One of them asked
Derrick if he would mind hitching it on behind his empty car, and
drawing it to the junction, adding that the boy who had taken his place
that day was too slow to live.
"All right," said Derrick. "I guess we can take it for you."
So, with two cars instead of one to pull, Harry Mule was started towards
the junction. On the way they had to pass through a door in charge of a
boy who had only come into the mine that day. This door opened towards
them, and they approached it on a slightly descending grade.
As they drew near to it, with Harry Mule trotting briskly along, Derrick
shouted, "Door!"
Again he shouted, louder than before, "Door! door! Holloa there! what's
the matter?"
The little door-tender, unaccustomed to the utter silence and solitude
of the situation, sat fast asleep in his chair. At last Derrick's
frantic shoutings roused him, and he sprang to his feet, but too late. A
crash, a wild cry, and poor Harry Mule lay on the floor of the gangway,
crushed between the heavy cars and the solid, immovable door!