The Portland daily press., 1889-10-16

on can't always tell WHAT'S IN Dundle
by the look of the wrapper"
The old man had found a seat on a fallen
tree that lay upon a sunny hillside, and was
carefully smoothing and shaping cane he
had cut near by. He held 1t up as he spoke,
and let his eye run along its length as II to
discover its Irregularities; but his gaze
wandered quite beyond the stick to the
valley and river below. where stood the great
mill with its tall, blackened chimneys and
massive walls.
mo, sir, you cant always tell by the looks
of bundle what's inside of it," he repeated,
more emphatically. And If folks would
only understand it. and stop tryin', 'twould
save deal of trouble. Now there's the
Darin' -
''Darlin'?" the visitor repeated uncer
tainly.
The keen eye under the old mans shaggy
brows twinkled, and his gray mustache
twitched.
"Oh, faint the name of any kind of
workman, like puddler, or mailer, or such;
it's just name that's his. We give it when
he first come here, IL years and more ago.
Things had been going pretty bad at the mill
then-stops and bitches of one kind or
'nother-and times gettn' worse for the men
all the while.
'Mismanagement most of it was, or
leastways, we thought so. Old Keswick-hs
was the overseer here-was one of the short
sighted, savn' kind, that would lose dollar
in tryin' to keep a penny. He'd pinch and
screw and 'conomize, as he called it, and let
h ings go that ought to be tended to, till at
last some big break would sweep off in a
day all his stinginess had saved in year.
Then he'd think expenses was so high that
wages ought to be cut a little lower.
II don't need to tell you that there wasn't
any love wasted between him and the men,
They & t discouraged, and bitter, and sort of
reckless like, when all of q sudden one day
Keswick dropped down in dead faint In
the mill, and had to be carried home. This
was the beginning of a long sickness that
ended his work atthe mill.
"The rest of the company bought out his
interest, and he went off to Europe We
didn't know who would be sent to to take
charge then, but we SOFT of hoped 'twould
be left in Jim Brycc's hands. He'd been
here the longest of any OF the men, and knew
deal about the business in practical kind
of way.
"There wasn't much reason to expect it. of
course, but he was the man we wanted.
Naturally, after the way things had been
goin', we thought Of ourselves, who'd feel
some interest in his old mates, would be an
improvement. Then, one day, down in the
mornin' train comes one of the company,
bringin' with him young fellow-looked
younger than he was, with his white skin,
blue eyes, light curly hair like girls; that
kind always does-that he said was the new
superintendent.
Superintendent" says Tom Clarkson, as
they passed by where he was workn'. That
chap never superintendent nothin' heftier
than band box in his born days
swell, he didn't look like it, that's fact.
But the company owned the mill, you see,
and this Teller was one of their sort, and so
into the place he goes, fine Clues, curly hair,
white hands and all. b'leye them white
hands made the boys madden than anything
else. They was strong enough lookin' too,
but white as lady's.
"'Loek at emf. says Tom, holdin' up his
own rough black paws to show the difference.
III the company's bound to give him some
thin to do, why don't they buy him pretty
That's all he's fit for He ought to be safe at
home, mammy's darlin'w
$50 that was the name we got to calm
him--'The Darlln, Not to his face, bless
blue now and then, and flash out sharp of
sudden like knife blade.
AFTER while we found there was some
experiments to be made-some inventions of
his-and that was one reason why he'd come
here. We didn't like him any better after
we heard that, l can tell you, for we thought
the company'd sink lot more money in such
nonsense. 'Twasn't our money, and so we
hadn't no reason to grumble, you say? Well,
there's two sides to that. There's two sides
to most things, IL a body'll only take the
trouble to look for 'em.
ibid you ever think how you'd feel to look
down at your hands, big, strong and willin',
but helpless. to provide for them dependin,
hands carelessly .wastin' what would be life
to you and yours?
fThat's how 1t looked to us. For times
had been hard with us, and, as told you,
Old Keswick had always calculated that the
losses must be evened up ON wages somehow.
"And this feIler-I'll be bound he's never
invented nOthin' more useful than a new tie
to mis- cravat! says Jim Bryce-'he'H fool
away no end of money, and then either the
mill will have to go down or wages will, and
mine has got about t9the foot of the ladder
now
"'0h, there's no doubt we'll 60 down, I'M
less some of his experiments blows him up.
Wish they wouldv answers Tom, only he put
1t rather uglier than that.
"Of course twas only talk, but the feelin'
was under it. and after while. from hopin'
somethin' would happen, the boys went
little farther, and got to plannin' how to
make IL happen.
II amt gOin to tell much about any plot.
! took care not to know much about il for
fear I'd run across somethin' I'd feel bound
to try to hender, and didn't want to try to
hender nothin', that's the fact. Only there
was no murder nor nothin' like that in it; the
EN- wasn't
"'No, we amt agoin' TO hunt mammy's
darlin'-Dless his pretty little heart mot
less he gits In the way, when he'd better be
out of it, says Tom, with grin. But If the
plaything he's SO tickled over Jest flies to
flinders some day. and the noise scares him
so that he gives it up and runs home, it'll be
the best thing for him and all the rest of u.s.
Seemed like nobody doubted he'd be easy
scared, and SO the whisperin' and black looks
and secret meetin'S went on.
"One day in summer box was brought In
the room where we worked. l shall always
remember that day, just how everything
looked. IL had been a bright, warm mornin',
ous ao Sra noon ~ eiouded up slowly, and
moved on the trees, and every thing was still,
like as II the world was holdin' its breath
and waitin' for somethin'
lueiuc tiio viii everything looked darker
and gloomier than usual in that queer gray
light. Great piles of castin's throwed black
shadows over the slippery floor: the long
iron shafts was like hungry arms forever
reachia' down and drawin' back empty. and
from udndr the brick archway the round
door of the furnace seemed glarin' out like
a big red eye. There's times when common
things don't have common look, and it's
mostly them kind of times that git burned
into your mem'ry. somehow.
"Notbin' seemed to go that day the way
folks had calculated. That miser'ble little
HOY had no sooner been sat down in the room
than somebody called: Hist! Look out!
and there was Boss Darlin.., comm back
from Ills dinner at an onarthly hour when
he'd never been known to come before. he
had a rose stuck In his buttonh0le, ana
looked like dancin' master goin' to party,
as heard Bob mutter, as he slipped the Dox
out of sight under pile of stuff at the end
of the room. They couldn't carry out their
plan then, so to there was nothin' left LOT
Fem but TO hide it,
The boss looked round kind Of snilin
and pleasant like. He'd got that model he
was busy with into working order, and
he was wonderful pleased over IT, And
what did he do, that day, but have 1t brought