The Iron Boys in the Steel Mills; or, Beginning Anew in the Cinder Pits — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Iron Boys in the Steel Mills; or, Beginning Anew in the Cinder Pits
John Stuart Mill · en
On the following morning the two boys reported for duty to the foreman
of number seven hearth, Bill Foley. There was a gleam of quiet
satisfaction in the eyes of the foreman as he saw the boys coming toward
his division. He had been informed that they were to work on a trick in
number seven section. Foley did not know why the change had been made.
He believed that, for some reason, the boys had been reduced to the
ranks. The only directions he had received regarding what was to be done
with the Iron Boys was the injunction of the assistant superintendent's
messenger, to "make them work till they can't tell a cinder pit from a
hole in the ground."
Foley grinned.
"You bet they'll work! Everybody in my division works."
Foley's head pitman was a Pole named Watski Kalinski, a heavy-faced man,
surly and quarrelsome at times, especially with the few men that were
under him. He understood cleaning the cinder pits, however, and he was
kept in his place because of the work that his shift got through with,
rather than for any especial intelligence that he might possess; which,
as a matter of fact, he did not.
Foley beckoned to him.
"Put those two boys in number seven pit."
"Easy or light?" grinned Watski.
"Easy or light, you mutton-head. That don't mean anything. I know what
you are getting at, but I'll have you understand that these young
gentlemen are friends of mine. Give them the best you have in the
house."
The words had apparently been spoken in all sincerity, but Watski
grinned knowingly.
"I'll make the children happy, Mr. Foley. Do they begin this morning?"
"Yes; start them off now. I'll be around later in the day to help carry
out the remains."
Watski chuckled. He walked over to where Bob and Steve stood waiting for
orders to go to work, surveying them from his beady, red eyes; beady
because nature had made them so, red from the heat and the cinders of
years in the mills.
"What's your name?" he snapped.
"Rush."
Watski roared.
"That's the trick. Your name's Rush and you'll be Rush, for you're going
to rush if you work in this section. What you been doing?"
"What we have been doing doesn't matter, so far as you are concerned. It
is what we are going to do that concerns you. Will you please put us to
work, or have some one do so who knows how?" asked Steve, perhaps with a
touch of maliciousness in his tone.
Kalinski bristled.
"Put you to work? Get somebody to put you to work?"
"That is what I wish, sir."
"Shut up!"
"Thank you, sir."
"What's the other kid's name?"
"My name is Bob Jarvis, and don't you take any liberties with it, unless
you've got an accident insurance on your life."
Watski's face wrinkled angrily. He clenched his fists, and for the
moment it looked as though he would fall upon Jarvis and punish him for
his boldness. Bob turned the tide by asking:
"When do we go to work? We're losing time?"
"Yes; where do we work?" urged Steve.
"See that cinder pit there?" leered the assistant.
"Yes."