Milford chronicle., 1925-05-01
ELEVENTH INSTALLMENT

The noon whistle was hardly sti
when Admah was handed a slip of pape
with the quiet. almost soothing sugges
tion,
'If you'll jest take that round to tn
Office"
"What for?" he asked hotly, hal
determined to knock the man down anC
be done with it.
Its yo' time, if you know what thai
means"
I'm fired2"
"Somethin' like that" drawled the
foreman and strOlled away to join 9
group Of his brothers.
The experience at the T. & p, toe
brief to form chapter in any life his
tory, was significant in Admah's. 1t
stood like small white post, marking
the boundary line between two states.
He went in mature boy. He came
out raw man. He had smelled iron
and dreamed a dream.
Out Of the smoky atmosphere of the
factory settlement he walked at noon
on a summers day. In one of his blis-
tered palms, clenched tight with an
angry yearning to go back and have it
out with the foreman, he held three
silver dollars and some small change.
Instinct turned his feet toward the
trolley station where he could find a car
that would transfer him to the Dutch
Hill loop. The ghost of a dead boy,
only half released from a mans body,
s'as crying out, warning Admah not to
- home and face his angry mother.
ia would be mad. Ma would throw
huck-9t. Then the great numbering
r.sn-Admah, only half born and form
saS5 as yet, would grunt back: Who's
R5'aid o Ma? She can jaw her head
-; but l won't sell candy out of a
basket any more.
Sitting under one Of those small open
SEEDS which a benevolent corporation
provides at the end Of trolley lines, he
had plenty of time to think. Ma was
tired Of his gOings-on and he had GER
4ainly been world of trouble to her.
20 had always been her favorite. 10
was smooth and steady; he would keep
tight on in the candy works and maybe
he'd be foreman when he was about
forty. The thought sickened Admah !
TO the core. There fickered into |
his mind a memory of Pa Holtz; seated |
In his plush rocker, his square spectacles
slightly awry, he looked like disrepu-
table portrait of Benjamin Franklin as
he held out a stubbly forefnger and
said, 'If mole had eyes to see what
he was doing he most certainly wouldn't
be mole"
Presently the street car came bump
Ing along and put down two shabby
The conductor who got
OFF and reversed the trolley for the |,
home-bound trip was a figure vaguely
familiar to Admah. He was more
smartly dressed than conductors had
been in the days when mules furnished
she power; when he removed his cap
10 wipe away the summer sweat he re-
Vealed fringe Of gray around an ex-
Iensive badness. Otherwise he was
'he same amiabie, gOggie-eyed conduc-
jor who had advised the Holtz family !
10 sell pie anfl doughnuts at the Dutch ]
Hill car barns. s
But when the car had started and he I
Dame around to collect the fare there {
gas no sign Of recognition between the I
nd friends. Admah had grown into :
mother person, whereas the conductor t
lad decayed little, as all men must s
'4NCA @ 0AA44Os OnCO " bW1C6 LIS lone v
had a mind to speak, but s
hat was a bitter and yet an exalted 4
lour for Admah Holtz. He was weary n
# the sights and sounds of city which
lad once lOOmed for him, purple and h
old and mighty as he logged over the a
iver bridge on top Of his mothers old +,
7agOn. 1t had promised him much -
nd given him little. Boyhood had y
one, and he had nothing to show for
but sore back and a pair of bHstered r
aims; and the ghost Of an old stone h
sitter was whispering in his ear. :,
Transfer to the loop?" asked the :,
onductor. =
They were swinging into the center +
town where steel skeletons, adver- =
King billboards and the saffron fronts -
chain drug stores marked a new and -
-stless era. VI VI
Where does this car go to?" ~
"River Ferry" The conductors Sr
'ply indicated that anyone oughU to a,
now that much. - u,
"I'll stay on" said Admah, and y y
INK back into his reverie. w. :"
Along the wharf at the foot of q I'll
5reet shipping was not so active as it vi
ad been, even In Admah's lifetime. m