Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-10-12
u EX MA CAR TH y.

ut isn't in your belt a the keys o the coun-
tryside hang, Jim Banks.-And maybe, strang-
er, if you'd feel to stop and ask the overman
it's a different answer you'd get"
The speaker was one of a group of yawn-
ing, pale-faced pitmen standing Mt the Low
ther shaft and the stranger was tall.
good-looking fellow in Golfers clothes, who
had just asked Jim Banks if he could get a
job in the mine" and been curtly told, No,
he couldn't"
just then II gnunt, sinewy form. with "A
grisly aspect came stalking towards them. He
had Il candle stuck in his cap and pipe in his
mouth.
That's John Bowlcs, stranger; its Il civil
word hen give You, anyway
The stranger nodded and smiled, and. with
the light Of the smile on his face, turned to
the ovCrman.
John Bowles," Le said, Il want job ;
can you give me one :"
Whats your name, fricndg"
REX Mccarthy"
What can yo' do Z"
Il could be Il herer."
I'm high seams =
Yes, in high seams"
In course. Yo'd niver bend them long
legs and yo'rc long back enough for some
O. our lie seams; but we've one or two'll hold
yo're inches, an there's other wark beside.
I'll gle yo' n pound week"
Done"
Are yo ready now, man.
Now"
Then down yo' 60"
And in the swinging banging, bounding
basket down Rex went-down through thou
sand feet of darkness Bowless practised
eye watched his descent You chaps no
pitman. The basket were as new to him rs il
were TO me forty years ago" All the more,
however, he admired the pluck and address
with which Rex had taken his turn; and, if
no pitman," he welded the pick-axe like a
giant Before night Bowles was well aware
that he had made n good bargain. just be-
fore the hour for "loosing" he sought out the
little fellow whose friendly words had encour-
aged Rex to speak to him in the morning. He
found him in corner full of floating coal
dust, barely lit by three or four candles stuck
in bits of clay. He was lying on his back,
nearly naked, and with a small pick working
away Mt the seam couple of feet above him.
"Will Hewitt"
The man turned his glimmering eyes toward
the overman.
There's a chap int pit to-day, raw hand,
Pm thinkng m'appen yo could do for him.
Ph@be's tidy wench, and kind one, too.
I'd be loath for him to come to i'll folk"
If misses likes, I'm none again it.
just then a long, shrill, resonant cry came
from the top of the shaft, Loose loose
l-o-o-s-e" 1t was taken up by the men be-
low, and rung from gallery to gallery and
from mouth to mouth, until the men and boys
in the remotest recesses had heard the wei
come sound.
Bowles's suspicious were strengthened by
the fact that Rex did not understand this
mode of dismissal. He had to go to him and
say:
There's no clocks nor bells here, my lad
yon's the loosening' cry. Up yo CO."
When he got to the top of the shaft he
found Win Hewitt waiting for him; and aftei
few words together, the two went toward
the pit-village. No village could have beer
uglier or more depressing than these long
rows of brick cabins in their desolate dirti
ness The black ground, the blAck cutters
the patches of blackened grass, the black
weary men, and the still blacker and weariei
children trapsing homeward, oppressed hin
frightfully. A vision that would not be pu
away intensified by contrast, this dreadful
picture-a vision of great white house set il
sweet old garden ways, and guarded by stead
fast hills lifting bare heads to the blue skiel
above them.
He was so occupied with this vision that ht
scarcely heard the occasional sentences witt
which Hewitt tried to interest him. Yet they
cost Hewitt some effort of courtesy and self
denial; for men who have been hewing Goa
all day in desolate cramped corners are usual
ly silent men until their bath and dinner hay,
restored them TO themselves.
Still amid all his preoccupation and weari
ness, Rex was glad to see that Hewitt left the
most squalid cottages behind them, and ap
preached one of the very cleanest and mos
inviting of a row of larger and more respecta