“Don’t load them right?” echoed the old miner; he became suddenly plaintive, as if more hurt than angered by such an insinuation. “You know all the years I work, and you tell me I don’t know a load? When I load a car, I load him like a miner, I don’t load him like a Jap, that don’t know about a mine! I put it up--I chunk it up like a stack of hay. I load him square--like that.” With gestures the old fellow was illustrating what he meant. “See there! There’s a ton on the top, and a ton and a half on the bottom--and you tell me I get only nineteen, twenty!” “That’s your weight,” said the boss, implacably. “But, Mister, your scale is wrong! I tell you I used to get my weight. I used to get forty-five, forty-six on them cars. Here’s my buddy--ask him if it ain’t so. What is it, Bo?” “Um m m-mum,” said Bo, who was a negro--though one could hardly be sure of this for the coal-dust on him. “I can’t make a living no more!” exclaimed the old Slovak, his voice trembling and his wizened dark eyes full of pleading. “What you think I make? For fifteen days, fifty cents! I pay board, and so help me God, Mister--and I stand right here--I swear for God I make fifty cents. I dig the coal and I ain’t got no weight, I ain’t got nothing! Your scale is wrong!” “Get out!” said the weigh-boss, turning away. “But, Mister!” cried Old Mike, following behind him, and pouring his whole soul into his words. “What is this life, Mister? You work like a burro, and you don’t get nothing for it! You burn your own powder--half a dollar a day powder--what you think of that? Crosscut--and you get nothing! Take the skip and a pillar, and you get nothing! Brush--and you get nothing! Here, by Judas, a poor man, going and working his body to the last point, and blood is run out! You starve me to death, I say! I have got to have something to eat, haven’t I?” And suddenly the boss whirled upon him. “Get the hell out of here!” he shouted. “If you don’t like it, get your time and quit. Shut your face, or I’ll shut it for you.” The old man quailed and fell silent. He stood for a moment more, biting his whiskered lips nervously; then his shoulders sank together, and he turned and slunk off, followed by his negro helper. SECTION 15.