i 57926919a60851a7 by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

the fact that they might have to take part of their wages in a food ticket, and that it she wanted a sub on her brothers the but tie would advance her the money at the rate of a penny in the shilling. The ordinary shift, he said, started at five and finished at five.
    Jimmy had been sick yesterday but William had been excited and kept larking on and making the others laugh.
    She got off the straw-filled mattress that was resting on the wooden platform and, shivering, hastily pulled on her clothes over her petticoat and under-bodice which she had slept in. When she was dressed she groped her way across the uneven floor to where Jimmy, William, Joe, and Annie were sleeping, and, her hands feeling among their heads, she fondled Jimmy's smooth, dark hair and William's crisp, fair hair and shook, them gently, and when they grunted she whispered,
    "Come on, get up."
    They made shivering, spluttering noises, then Jimmy coughed and said in a small voice, "What time is it?"
    "Coming up to four as near as I can guess," she answered; "the sky's lightening. I'll blow the fire up and you'll have a drop of tea at ore you go. It'll warm you."
    There was no more conversation, not even when presently they huddled round the fire and drank the hot, weak tea; not until they were ready to go did she speak again, then handing them each three slices of bread and fat tied up in a bait rag she said, "Make it spin out, it'll be a long day. But I'll have something ready for you when you come in....
    Come on."
    The light was breaking as they climbed the hill and stumbled across the half mile of hillocky land towards the main road and she didn't leave them until half an hour later when they could see each other's faces plainly. Then she nearly brought them all to tears with what she later termed to herself a daft action, for with a swift movement she flung out her arms and hugged them to her, and they clung to her like Annie and Joe would have done until she thrust them off and, turning from them, ran back up the road. They walked for another half hour before they reached the pit. Only once did they speak; that was when the pulleys came in sight and William said in a high, excited voice, "You frightened, our Jimmy?"
    And Jimmy, lying bravely, said, "No; are you?" And William said honestly, "I don't know now whether I'm frighted or just excited but me belly's wobblin'. Like we'll know more the night." He laughed his warm laugh but Jimmy did not respond. He already knew what he would know the night.
    Inside the yard they were lost amid a bustle of men and boys, some to their joint surprise much younger than themselves and none of them looking as if they had been washed for weeks. Jimmy started and turned
    'round quickly when he heard a small boy address the man he was walking with as da. There were tliree boys with this man. He thought to himself, they must be all like the Fishers and go down with their da's.
    To his fear now was added a deep sense of aloneness and he had the horrifying feeling that he was about to cry. He said to a man,
    "Where's the office, mister? We've got to go to the office." And the man, pointing, said, "Ower there, lad."
    A man sitting at a narrow, high desk said, "Yer name?" and he answered for both of them, saying, "Jimmy and William Brodie."
    "Who's yer but tie
    "What?"
    "Yer but tie the man you're workin' for?"
    "Oh, I think his name's Pollock."
    "Well, don't stand there; you won't find him here, he'll be at the shaft bottom."
    They went out and joined the crowd standing beneath the pulley way, then they never knew how it happened but they were crushed with four other boys into a small wire cage that suddenly fell into the earth at a terrific speed, causing their stomachs to come up into their throats.
    When there was a bump they all fell together and tumbled out into what looked like a tunnel, but strangely not an entirely black tunnel. The roof, a few feet above their heads, showed crisscross pieces of wood holding up big