The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-11-18
THE CITY .-.,..-. j" :.--..,,
'', ,:: :;::; ;;'' Or BREAD
Bread" Alexander
(Continued.)

They allowed board the train at the station they
had driven off the car roofs Now they We're going foot
might turn at any moment nt, and say:
Where are you g sh
ITO Tashkent!"
The mus did turn but they did not ask where the boys were
going, of theirs.
soldier lmped along taking big uneven strides with his
wooden leg andre a loud
in Tashken know cold and everything
lookinggass All kinds of berries grow
hereGods trutwho acres of them You can walk along LOT
and nothing but gardens gardens gardens The
gardens"
Bread is cheap you a Sa for two weeks
make twenty pools take along besides your board "
The old man the little girl the women the three muk and
Mhka and Trofm were heartened by
looked ustfuy the blue mountain tops and udged
on uneven struggling trange-oward the cod clear water
the bread toward the endless gardens
Broad and lay the stepp bathed in hot red haze Here
hok Above the dead salt deposits the steppe
vutures crced solitary then settled the ancient graves Of the
princes steppe there like faithful entne their black
heads moone Chains of immense virgin burdoks descended into
the hoows mounted the hills CHASTITY in their deathke loneliness
their century long unbrken silence The sun mounted to the zenith
and began to sink; the monday shadows grew shorter
The soldier with the wooden leg had ceased tell his tales of cold
clear water and gazed with hatred his red nfamed eyes over the
dead spaces of the steppe and said hopeessly:
We won't get the station We won't be able to hold out
The and the little girl rudged along with pached famished
mouths oked They chung each others hands, and wep
silently with the dread that weighed upon Them
Only Sidor the mujk and Yemoa with the stiff
kemp hair podded along ubbo black necks bowed
taking strides with their bleeding feet Pyea walking
the lead suddenly raised his wooden staff high and shading his
with his hands gad the fleeing gttering rails and said
Lookthe something yonder )"
abandoned Kgh heaps of pedup caythe
Again Pyetra eyes gazed
distance seeking the lost station.
But there station.
Only the buzzing telegraph wires and sometimes the wrecks of
wheels of the last traces of the civil that had
swept over the eppe from Turkestan to samara
easier for Mishka and Trom than for the Others
They had drunk rested each them had
big piece bread in his pocket From time to time Mishka would
slip cumb stealthiy into his mouth and whisper Trofim
Not bad for u.s. eh?"
along forward dragging
his stiff legs painfully behind him. They hiock he
stopped and breaed heavily through his dushoked nOs smiled
wany with his good kind and crossed himself facing the hot red
"stop, children, al with
The stepp began and before his wondering
the burdock rocked and swyed the telegraph poles wd around
the telegraph wires buzzed louder and louder in his
S od n n1s cant it, 60 es any nd rhe Silent m div
The soldier sat down beside him caspng his wooden leg nvu
"sop brothers, too can go no farther. . ;"
sdo and Yermoa halted With sudden gesture Pyetra flung
ooh, road, road, long road that ends!"
He searched in his pocket and drew few grains tobacco
lit them and inhaled the acd the gnawng
empty hungry enra After three pulls he dizzy and gng
Sido their knees
The and the little girl lay ground
The old cued himself ball. leaning his head hands
The soldier sat staring at his wooden leg and said duly dead
Indifferent voice:
Mshka looked fearuy at the fallen the
habtations
sank It would be all right the station
still forty away?
He broke off bit of the bread his pocket slipped
his mouth that the of might his mounting
The old soldier looked Mishkas pocket with eyes
"You bread?"
Mishka glanced at Trofim
Trofm answered lazly, without losing his composure:
Where is there bread? He's chewing lime"
The old stirred Sdor and Yermolai their heads
and the little girl stared him with
moment the whole famished there quveng
pckng their Had the joyful
the earth that had whispered their
where bread?" demanded Pyera
The soldier pointed Mishka
"He has
Mishka in ready battle the his
last hope; his gaed like poecas dragged hole
Suddenly Trofm his BY the
"Come ahead, know the way"
Be Continued)