Coal River by Ellen Marie Wiseman Read Free Book Online

her chair. “You might go to the mines every day, but while you’re gone, I’m here running this household and making sure you have clean clothes on your back and warm food in your belly. So don’t you sit there and act like I’m eating bonbons all day while you—”
    “Enough!” Emma shouted, slapping both hands on the table. Uncle Otis and Aunt Ida stopped short, their shocked faces snapping toward her. “Please! I’m sorry I brought it up!”
    Aunt Ida settled back into her chair. “Well, I’m sorry you brought it up too,” she said. “It’s just a ridiculous notion. From now on, think before you speak.”
    “Your aunt is right,” Uncle Otis said. “You can put going to school right out of your head, young lady.”
    Emma chewed on the inside of her cheek, blinking back tears. Maybe she should ask for a train ticket back to New York. Maybe she could find a job there as a maid or a waitress, and look for a roommate to share a cheap room. She berated herself for not doing that in the first place, before ever stepping foot on the train. Then she remembered waking up in the hospital, learning her parents were dead, and being given a choice between the poorhouse and Coal River. She had been in shock, indifferent to what happened next. Besides, the doctor wouldn’t have released her to wander the streets alone. And no one would have hired a penniless girl wearing a donated, oversized dress, let alone paid her enough to rent a decent room. She had seen the seven-cent lodging house on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. She had seen the back alleys of the tenement houses, and the beggars outside the pauper barracks. Surely, she would have ended up in one of those places, or worse. She had come back to Coal River because there was no other choice.
    Aunt Ida sighed. “Now that we’ve gotten through all that unpleasantness,” she said, “let’s eat, shall we? Heaven knows I took a lot of time and trouble to plan this nice meal to welcome you, Emma. The least you can do is let us enjoy it in peace.”
    Uncle Otis patted his wife’s hand and exhaled, blowing out his breath with more force than necessary. With a nod from his mother, Percy muttered a short grace. Silence followed as Cook went around with the beef, stooping over at each place, scraping the serving fork across the china platter.
    “Any more trouble with the new immigrants?” Percy asked his father.
    Uncle Otis finished his wine, then twirled the stem of the crystal goblet between his boney fingers. “The Irish are settled in the kettle,” he said. “And the Germans and the Italians are in the boarding house for now. The Coal and Iron Police warned the miners to leave them be. But we’ll bring in more police if we have to.”
    “Do you think they’ll strike?”
    “Probably not until the end of summer, when the weather turns and people need coal to heat their homes through winter.”
    “What about Clayton Nash?” Percy said. “He still up to no good?”
    “Can’t be sure,” Uncle Otis said. “Word has it he’s trying to arrange secret meetings with the rest of the miners. Can’t have more than four nonfamily members gathered at a time or he’s breaking the law.”
    Emma looked at her uncle, confused. When did it become illegal to hold a meeting of four or more people in the United States of America? The idea that everything and everyone in Coal River was frozen in time returned. Or maybe they were just backward.
    “Nash doesn’t care about the rules,” Uncle Otis added.
    “Do you think he’s trying to reorganize the union?” Percy said.
    “You can bet he’s trying,” Uncle Otis said. “But if any of them start that kind of trouble, they’ll be out of a job and run out of town so fast, it will make their heads spin. A hundred men are ready to take their places at any time. I just got word that two hundred Germans are in Scranton, waiting for work. And those immigrants are willing to do just about anything for a job, no matter