Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-12
THE BREAKING POINT
BY MARY ROBERTS RLNEHART

had come to associate with her thoughts of
Dick. She seemed infinitely removed from
him, travelling her lonely road past loving,
outstretched hands and facing ahead tow7rd
we'll, towayd fifty years of sp1nsterhood.
The sheer waste of it made him shudder.
You're cold, too, Wallie,'' she said gently
YOU'D better go home"
He was about to repudiate the idea scorn-
fully, when he sneeZed. She got up at ouce
and held out her hand.
'You are very dear to feel about me the
way you do" she said rapidly. II appreciate
your telling me. And if you're chilly when
you get home you'd better take some cam
phor."
He saw her in, hat in hand, and then turn
ed and stalked up the street. Camphor, in
deed! But so stubborn was hope in his young
heart that before he had climbed the NIL ne
was finding comfort in her thought for him.
Mrs Sayre had been away for week, VS.
iting in Michigan, and he had not expected
her for day or so. To his surprise he found
her the terrace, wrapped in furs, ana evil
IDENTIFY waiting for him
when he had kissed her. "It's a summer
place, not heated to amount to anything, and
when it turned cold-where have you been
tonight?"
Dinner at the Wards, and then took Eliza
abeth home"
"How is she?"
"Shes we'll"
"And there's no news?"
He knew her very WELL and he saw then
that she was laboring under suppressed ex-
element.
whats the matter, mother? You're wor-
ried about something, aren't you?"
81 have something to tell you. We'd bet
ter go inside"
He followed her in unexcited and half
ss'Well?" he inquired. 81 suppose" Then
he saw her face Sorry, mother. What's
the trouble?"
"Waflie I saw Dick Livingstone IN chi
cago."
alfalfa fields of central Washington, har-
vest hand or working stiff" among other NIL
gratory agricultural workers. Among them,
but not entirely of them. Recruited from the
lowest levels as men grade, gathered In at
slave market on the coast, herded in bunk
houses alive with vermin, fully but badly ted'
overlooking with blasphemy and filled with
sullen hate for those above them in the social
scale the "stiffs' regarded him with distrust
from the start.
The primal instinct of the herd asserted
itself, the need of human companionsh1p OF
any sort.
never have failed. He could not drink with
them. He could not sink to their level OF
degradation. Their oaths and obscenlry sick
ened and disguised him. and their talk OF
women drove him into the fresh air.N
They called him the Dude, and put into 1t
gradually all the class hatred of their wretch
ed, sullen lives. He had to fight them, more
than once, and had they united against him
he might have been killed. But they never
united Their own personal animosities and
angers kept them apart, as their misery held
them together. And as time went on and his
muscles hardened he was able to give bet
ter account of himself. The time came when
they let him alone, and when one day big
shocker fell off stack and broke his leg, and
Dick set it, he gained their respect. They
asked no questions, for their law was that the
past was the past They did not like him, but
in the queer twisted ethics of the camp they
judged the secret behind him by the helght
from which he had fallen, and began slowly
to accept him as one of the brotherhood OF
derelicts.
Continued Saturday. Renew your
subscription now, so as not to miss an In
oil