第42章 CHAPTER XX(2)

That was the thing.I was passing coal to the firemen,who shovelled it into the furnaces,where its energy was transformed into steam,which,in the engine-room,was transformed into the electricity with which the electricians worked.This passing coal was surely the very beginning-unless the superintendent should take it into his head to send me to work in the mines from which the coal came in order to get a completer understanding of the genesis of electricity for street railways.

Work!I,who had worked with men,found that I didn't know the first thing about real work.A ten-hour day!I had to pass coal for the day and night shifts,and,despite working through the noon-hour,I never finished my task before eight at night.I was working a twelve-to thirteen-hour day,and I wasn't being paid overtime as in the cannery.

I might as well give the secret away right here.I was doing the work of two men.Before me,one mature able-bodied labourer had done the day shift and another equally mature able-bodied labourer had done the night-shift.They had received forty dollars a month each.The superintendent,bent on an economical administration,had persuaded me to do the work of both men for thirty dollars a month.I thought he was making an electrician of me.In truth and fact,he was saving fifty dollars a month operating expenses to the company.

But I didn't know I was displacing two men.Nobody told me.On the contrary,the superintendent warned everybody not to tell me.

How valiantly I went at it that first day.I worked at top speed,filling the iron wheelbarrow with coal,running it on the scales and weighing the load,then trundling it into the fire-room and dumping it on the plates before the fires.

Work!I did more than the two men whom I had displaced.They had merely wheeled in the coal and dumped it on the plates.But while I did this for the day coal,the night coal I had to pile against the wall of the fire-room.Now the fire-room was small.It had been planned for a night coal-passer.So I had to pile the night coal higher and higher,buttressing up the heap with stout planks.

Toward the top of the heap I had to handle the coal a second time,tossing it up with a shovel.

I dripped with sweat,but I never ceased from my stride,though Icould feel exhaustion coming on.By ten o'clock in the morning,so much of my body's energy had I consumed,I felt hungry and snatched a thick double-slice of bread and butter from my dinner pail.This I devoured,standing,grimed with coal-dust,my knees trembling under me.By eleven o'clock,in this fashion I had consumed my whole lunch.But what of it?I realised that it would enable me to continue working through the noon hour.And I worked all the afternoon.Darkness came on,and I worked under the electric lights.The day fireman went off and the night fireman came on.I plugged away.

At half-past eight,famished,tottering,I washed up,changed my clothes,and dragged my weary body to the car.It was three miles to where I lived,and I had received a pass with the stipulation that I could sit down as long as there were no paying passengers in need of a seat.As I sank into a corner outside seat I prayed that no passenger might require my seat.But the car filled up,and,half-way in,a woman came on board,and there was no seat for her.I started to get up,and to my astonishment found that Icould not.With the chill wind blowing on me,my spent body had stiffened into the seat.It took me the rest of the run in to unkink my complaining joints and muscles and get into a standing position on the lower step.And when the car stopped at my corner I nearly fell to the ground when I stepped off.

I hobbled two blocks to the house and limped into the kitchen.