The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-07-01
BOB N MlNA..@Z
(By Annie L. Diggs.)

WY oio, SllldllS1 Via luSS NOulu nave
been had they been we'll fed. older than
they would have been but for h%ardships.
But Bob and Nina We're in love. They
did not know what to call it, they only
knew they We're comfortable with each
other. often supremely content.
sometimes true, strong, devoted love
m to very tender years. Bob and
Nina were i~nseparable comrades; they
strolled about the livelong day, holding
each other by the hand. With their
blue, bony fingers intertwined they
were not conscious of the gnawing
hunger pain; they forgot their gaunt
stomachs. Bob had lived eight years.
Nina seven. Both were strangers to
affection save that which each received
from the other. Their caresses were
limited to handclasps.
These children had homes. if it be
not sa~crllegious to apply the word to
the rackety board shanties settled into
the clay bank close by the coal shaft.
flower, nor even weed could grow.
This young-old couple had mothers
and fathers, at least those who bore
that physical relationship. Their par
ents were not brutal nor unkind; they
were merely dull %drudges, such as exist
and slave in every coal mine, whose
vitality was exhausted by slow. sue
cessive days of drudgery that none was
left over for manifestation of affection
toward their offspring. When there
were bread and potatoes, and sometimes
bacon in the shanty the children had
their full measure of need ladled out to
them, even if their mothers left their
own share Scant.
Days when the bread supply was
short, Bob and Nina kept hold Of hands
almost constantly.
This day there was no bread in the
~shanties; the men were on a strike. Bob
and Nina wandered down to the creek;
there was shade there. The children
were weak; they walked unsteady.
Their was advantage in having hold of
hands; when one stumbled the other
prevented a fall. They seldom stumbled
both at once; when they did they both
laughed-their love was SO great they
enjoyed ever their mishaps if shared
together. This day the h~eat-sultry,
~life-taking ~heat-added to, or maybe
counter-irritated, the gnawing hunger.
Bob n Nina sat on the grassy bank
of the clear, pebbly brook. and talked
about bread. "Bob," said Nina, Il
world, is they?" Her ideas of the
world were vague. ooh, some bread is
gettin' growed some place. replied the
hopeful Bob. There were long inter-
walls between their remarks. They were
too hunger-weak for steady talk.
The awful heat scorched n boiled
and found them out, even in their re-
treat under the shade tree. AS the sur
streaks burning through the scant-
leaved places in their protecting tree
shifted across the dry grass the chill
dren moved %languidly from time. to
time to the shadier spots. At Shutdown
the air was ha9VV ctihinp Stapnnnt
Nina gasped for breath; inward fever
was adding fuel to the outside torrid
heat. Her little pinched ace famed
red as the blood hued, angry sunset
her eyes shone through the fever heat
like two round bits of deep, blue sky.
She grew delirious. She leaned on Bob's
shoulder and now and then threw her
thin arms convulsively about his neck,
Bob, oh Bob, the breads growed,
see a whole great big loaf" The charm
Of encircling arms could not quite still
the last furnishing call of the starving
child. Bob, which hurts worst, The
hot, or the cold, when the snow gifts
on the bed in the winter?" Nina laugh
ed loudly and Tightening her clutch
about his neck. Bob did not understand
the girls strange mood, but he stroked
her hair n strove to quiet her while
he tried to think if it eve had been
oAA "AAN v SiI"S ~ 2
hurt. Nina breathed faster. Nina, be
you tired?" No answer save a shive1
from the child. By and by her breath
ing grew more quiet. Bot could scarce
ly hear it; he bent his face close to
hears. 1t yielded him supreme com
fort to hold his n love in the world
so long. He would have kissed her had
he known about that kind of caress
but he had never been kissed, at least
nOt Cinoo ho o0,111 rornornhor HE
mother had fou l~istless, stunted chill.
dren younger than himself. She some
times kissed the youngest baby. They
had each doubtless had their turn. Bot
had forgotten his time. Twas the
same in Mas family, only there ha6
been but three younger ones, n the
baby had died, so no one got kissed.
At last Bob could o hear Nina
breathe at all. Her arms fell limp, he
gathered her closer. He did not know
that she was dead. But he was grow
presence was unable to longer hold hin
above the hunger craving. Nina, Nina
wake up; I guess it's like you said
they amt no bread in the world"
1t was winter at the mines. This tim,
it was a lockout, not a strike. Bob:
father had talked up" to the boss an
had been ordered away from the dump
There was no fire in Bob's shanty
The snow sifted through the roof ont'
the bedclothes which were piled owe
him. The ice had filmed over the waite
in the lineup on the chair beside hi
cot.
Bob had thrown himself fiat on tn
ground and alternately howled in re
belliOus rage or moaned in comfortles
despair when they put little Nina il
the ground away from him.
After the strike of that awful sum
mer had ended and the dread hat
growed," Bob had had enough to ca
every day, but he grew gradually weak
err and thinner, too weak ever to moal