Coal Camp Girl

  The day was cold for November and a stiff wind was blowing. The children started early, because they wanted to be there when the office window opened.

  They passed the Bryant house and saw Mrs. Bryant going for water at the spigot in the Murphys’ yard. Dave Hurley on his crutches waved from his front porch. The next house was the Davises’ empty one, and then came the Murphys’. At the gate stood Peggy. She was older than Tina and not very friendly. She liked to pull Tina’s hair and slap her on the back. Sometimes it hurt.

  “Where you kids goin’?” demanded Peggy.

  “Down to the store,” said Tina.

  “Don’t speak to her,” whispered Jeff. “Don’t tell her what I’m going for.”

  “What are you going to the store on payday for?” asked Peggy.

  Neither Tina nor Jeff answered. They hurried on.

  Peggy Murphy came running behind them.

  “Bet I know what you’re doin’,” shouted Peggy. “Bet you’re gonna draw your daddy’s pay!”

  The children ran and did not answer. At the company store, the line of men and a few women was already waiting. Jeff and Tina took their places behind Mrs. Watkins, a large stout woman. They saw Peggy Murphy lying in wait for them. They saw Hilda Krupa come up and talk to Peggy. They saw Cliff Crouse and Sammy Blagg come up on bicycles. Peggy talked to them too, and pointed to Jeff and Tina.

  Jeff felt worried, but did not tell Tina how he felt.

  At last the window opened, and soon his turn came. There was over a hundred dollars for Daddy this time, even after various items had been charged out. Mr. Frazier smiled at Tina this time and told Jeff to button the envelope up tight, so he would not lose it. They walked slowly out the door side by side.

  “You stay right by me, Tina,” said Jeff, “no matter what happens.”

  “All right, Jeff,” said Tina. “Here they come.”

  Sammy Blagg was a big boy and known to be a bully. Cliff Crouse was smaller, but liked to do whatever Sammy did. The boys left their bicycles beside the store and came over to Jeff. Jeff wished that Virgil Tucker were there. Together they could beat the two other boys up.

  “This is a hold-up!” said Sammy. He pointed his fingers like a gun. “Hand it over.”

  Jeff smiled. “You’re kiddin’, Sammy. Do you think you’re in a movie?”

  Cliff Crouse said, “We need some cash. Hand us over a ten dollar bill.”

  Jeff turned to Tina and said, “Let’s run.”

  The two ducked and started running, only to be blocked by Peggy Murphy and Hilda Krupa. “Give us what you got!” said Peggy.

  “Why Hilda,” said Tina. “I thought you were a friend of mine and not Peggy’s.”

  There was no time for talk. Jeff and Tina ran as fast as they could go. Jeff cut across the railroad track and several yards, with Tina at his heels. Sammy and Cliff ran to get their bicycles and followed along the road, hoping to cut him off.

  Tina ran as hard as she could, but could not keep up. There were Jeff’s flying legs a mile ahead of her. She was panting for breath, when a hard blow came on her shoulder. She fell to the ground with Peggy Murphy on top of her. She fought with her fists and kicked with her feet, but could not get Peggy off. Then a blow hit her in the face. Her nose began to bleed and she could not see out of her eye. She lay stunned for a moment.

  Where was Jeff? Had he got away? Were they beating him up? Were they taking Daddy’s pay? Tina felt like an old, old woman as she tried to get to her feet. Expecting more blows, she did not know which way to turn.

  “Fighting again! All you coal camp kids do is fight!”

  A woman leaned her head out of a window and shouted. “Go away, you bad little girl! Don’t you ever come in my yard again! Fighting like a wild-cat! I’ll call the police! Go away!”

  Tina stumbled to her feet and tried to go on. Then she looked around to see if she was alone. Peggy Murphy was gone. She had done her worst and fled. But there stood Hilda Krupa, scared and white. Hilda’s tears were rolling down her face. She came slowly over to Tina.

  “Go away,” said Tina. “I thought you were my friend.”

  “I am!” said Hilda, crying again. “I tried and tried to get Peggy Murphy to stop, but she wouldn’t. I wasn’t helping her, I was trying to make her stop. But she said she was going to give you a black eye … and she did.” Hilda put her arm around Tina’s shoulder.

  “Peggy Murphy told me she hated you because your daddy’s got work in the mine and her daddy’s laid off,” said Hilda. “So she wanted to get even with you.”

  “They were after my daddy’s pay,” said Tina, “those bad boys. Peggy put them up to it.”

  “They didn’t get it,” said Hilda. “Jeff got away, I saw him.”

  “How?” asked Tina.

  “Virgil Tucker saw him running and called to him,” said Hilda. “He jumped on a coal truck that was going to the tipple. Mr. Tucker, Virgil’s daddy, was driving it. He stopped and Jeff got in the cab with him and Virgil.”

  “Oh, I’m glad,” said Tina, wiping her bloody nose on her skirt. “I can’t see much out of my eye. Do I look terrible?”

  “Your eye’s all swollen up,” said Hilda.

  Tina tried to brush off her clothes. “I’m covered with blood and mud. What will Mama say?”

  “I’ll tell her you couldn’t help it,” said Hilda.

  “If you come home with me, Mama won’t scold,” said Tina.

  Tina walked slowly home, with Hilda’s arm around her waist. She hoped she would never see Peggy Murphy again. She dreaded going in the house. But it wasn’t so bad, after all.

  “Oh, those Murphys!” cried Mama. She listened to Hilda’s story, then she bathed Tina’s face, gave her a pad for her bloody nose and bandaged her eye. She had her change her soiled dress.

  Jeff had already come home with Daddy’s pay safe in his pocket. When Daddy came home and heard the tale he said, “So the kids still scrap at Scrappers Corners! That place has always had a bad name. When I was a boy, after the men were paid off, they’d get drunk and fight. The boys fought too—some carried knives and razors. I’ve got two or three holes in the back of my head made by rocks.”

  “What a week this has been!” said Mama. “Uncle Jack under the slate with a crushed shoulder and arm, Tina lost in the fog, Jeff chased by a bunch of hoodlums, Tina beaten up by a neighbor girl, Snowball sick with the colic … What next, I wonder?”

  Although Mama did not realize it, worse was still to come and soon. The first day the next week, Daddy came home, tired and dejected. When Tina and Ronnie ran to meet him and look for a treat in his bucket, there was nothing there. He had not even a smile for them. He did not take them by the hand. The children knew something was wrong.

  “What is it, Walter?” asked Mama at the supper table. “What are you worrying about? Uncle Jack is coming along fine, we’ve been able to pay something on his hospital bill, Tina’s black eye is healing and she’ll soon be pretty again, Snowball has recovered from the colic and can go back to work …”

  “But I’ve lost my job!” said Daddy, laying down his fork.

  “No!” said Mama. “Oh no! They can’t do that to you, after all the years you’ve worked for them!”

  “But they have,” said Daddy. “They laid off twenty more men, and I’m one of the twenty.”

  “I can’t believe it,” said Mama slowly. “Somehow when things like this happen to other people, you can’t believe it could ever happen to you …”

  “Until it does,” said Daddy. “Then you’ve got to believe it, whether you want to or not.”

  “Oh Daddy,” said Tina. “You won’t be a miner any more?”

  “Sugar,” said Daddy, “I’ll be a miner till the day I die!”

  Chapter Five

  PONY

  “Jeff! Get up! Jeff! Jeff!”

  The boy felt someone shaking him, but he turned over and fell asleep again.

  “JEFF! JEFF! How many times must I call you?”


  Jeff opened his eyes and threw the covers back. It was time to get up and make the fire in the kitchen stove. He shivered as he pulled on his clothes. The room was very cold.

  Jeff pulled up the blind and looked out.

  The first snow was already on the ground. Its fresh whiteness made the dingy mine houses look still darker. Winter was early this year. Jeff hoped for lots of snow. Snow meant sliding and there were steep mountain slopes on all sides for that.

  Jeff went in the kitchen where it was still colder. He opened the lids of the cook stove, put paper in and wood on top. He poured in a few drops of kerosene and lighted it. As soon as the wood began to burn, he put coal on.

  The coal bucket was nearly empty. He had forgotten to fill it the night before. He unlocked the back door, took it out and ran to the coal shed by the road. He shoveled coal in and brought it back.

  Now Mama was up, getting breakfast. Oatmeal was cooking on the stove and Mama was mixing biscuits. The smell of coffee filled the air. Celia came out with baby Letty on her arm.

  “Jeff,” said Mama, “Uncle Chick left word for you to ride the new ponies over to the mine this morning. Go on up to Gramp’s and get them. Uncle Chick’s miners will be waiting for them.”

  “Tina!” called Jeff. “Come on. We have to take the ponies to the mine.”

  Tina came in the kitchen buttoning up her coat. The children ate quickly and went out. They ran up the hill to Grandpa’s.

  Jeff loved to ride the ponies to Uncle Chick’s mine. He took them down on Monday mornings and brought them back on Friday nights. Sometimes Tina went along. This morning it was clammy and cold in the valley, for the sun had not yet peeped over the mountain.

  Bright Eyes and Diamond, the new ponies, were working now. Okey Travis, the pony-driver, had been breaking them in for several weeks. Diamond was still a little wild. Each time Jeff got on, Diamond rared up and tried to throw him. But Jeff knew what to do.

  “Go easy,” called Grandpa. “Talk to him easy and he’ll do what you say.”

  Diamond quieted down and Jeff rode on ahead. Tina followed on Bright Eyes. The children rode from Grandpa’s pasture on around Laurel Mountain, until they came to a stripped section. Soil and rock on the side of the hill had been stripped off by bulldozers, exposing a huge cliff some forty feet high. Here was Uncle Chick’s pony mine. At the bottom of the cliff was an entry with an “apron” of timbers over it. In front was a rickety tipple with a truck standing under it. Tracks led from the entry up the slope to the top of the tipple. Over on the right side was the fan entry.

  A crude pony barn with a small fenced-off lot was at one side. In a low place, a pool of water had collected for the ponies to drink. The old ponies, Snowball and Ginger, had just come out of the mine with a load of coal. Okey Travis was unhitching them.

  Snowball had recovered from her colic and was working again. Tina stared at the pony—she hardly knew her. Snowball’s white fuzzy fur was black and dirty now from mud and coal dust. She called her name, but the pony did not turn her head. Snowball was not a pet any more. She had turned into a mine pony again. Did Snowball live two separate lives, and forget one while she was living the other?

  Tina turned away. “I like Bright Eyes better, anyhow,” she tried to comfort herself. “But now Bright Eyes will turn into a mine pony too …” Tears came to the girl’s eyes.

  Jeff and Tina watched Okey hitch Bright Eyes and Diamond to the coal car. Diamond was the leader, and Bright Eyes came behind. Okey put a miner’s lamp on Diamond’s forehead and hung the battery in a leather case from the pony’s collar.

  “Hup!” called Okey, snapping his strap in the air.

  Okey slapped a board down on the coal car, called it his “saddle” and sat on it. The ponies went down the track at a run. At the entry, Okey had to duck his head and bend over, because it was so low. The roof of the mine just cleared the ponies’ heads. In fact, Diamond had a leather shield on his forehead, so he would not be hurt if he hit any of the cross timbers. Uncle Chick’s five miners were inside the mine, shoveling coal by hand into coal cars.

  Jeff and Tina sat down and waited. Poor Bright Eyes! He would have to work hard now. And Diamond was flighty. Would he ever make a good mine pony? Tina hated to see the ponies start to work. They would not stay plump and round now. They would soon grow strong and muscular. They would get lean and lanky, and wouldn’t be pretty any more.

  When Uncle Chick came out, Jeff said, “Don’t let Okey whip Diamond, Uncle Chick, or he’ll have trouble.”

  “I know,” said Uncle Chick. “If Diamond don’t break, I’ll have to sell him off and get another pony.”

  Jeff went over to the pony lot and put bridles on Ginger and Snowball.

  “Okey hates to see Snowball and Ginger go,” said Uncle Chick. “Them two never lifted a foot or caused any trouble in the five years since we’ve had ’em. Them ponies are so glad to see us each morning they walk over and get right in the harness.”

  “Do they know what you tell them?” asked Tina.

  “They know more than a lot of people do,” said Uncle Chick. “They go right up to that buggy to be hitched. And when they come out, they know just where to go and when to turn at the tipple, to get out of the way when Okey unhooks ’em. Inside the mine, if there’s bad slate overhead, they won’t budge an inch. They seem to know a rockfall might kill ’em. Okey will sure miss ’em when they’re gone. But they need a long rest now. That’s why I’m sending them back to Gramp.”

  Jeff brought Ginger and Snowball out of the lot. “We got to hurry back, Uncle Chick, so we won’t be late for school,” said Jeff.

  “Just a minute,” said Uncle Chick. “If your dad wants to start a pony mine, Gramp will lease him that one over yonder. Some fellow started it a while back, and then up and left. The coal seam’s thirty-six inches there and pretty good.”

  “Dad likes the big mine,” said Jeff. “He don’t want to go back to pick and shovel, he said. He’d rather work with machinery.”

  “I know how he feels,” said Uncle Chick, “but he wants to feed his family, don’t he? And since he’s laid off now, I thought …”

  “Dad says ponies are on their way out and big machinery is coming in,” said Jeff.

  “Yes, to displace the men,” said Uncle Chick. “You tell him the small mines will be here for a long time to come. Every time the big mines lay men off, they’re bound to go to work in the little mines—or starve. They can make work for themselves and be independent.”

  Jeff shook his head, feeling sad inside. He could see both sides and he did not know what the answer was.

  The next minute the children heard Okey’s “Hup!” again. There came Diamond out of the entry, then Bright Eyes, and a loaded coal car behind. The ponies had to pull hard up the sloping ramp to the dumping place on the tipple. Okey shouted, they stopped, Okey pulled the clevis pin which detached the harness from the coal car, and they stepped to one side out of the way. Okey pushed the buggy on ahead, where it tipped over and dumped the coal into the waiting truck below.

  “Fine! Fine!” called Uncle Chick, climbing up the tipple ladder. “They’re working like veterans!” He patted Diamond on the head.

  Tina climbed up and put her arms around Bright Eyes’ neck.

  “Was Bright Eyes scared in the mine, Okey?” she asked.

  “Scared?” Okey laughed. “That pony scared? Scared o’ what?”

  “Scared of bats … and rats …” said Tina. “Scared of the dark!”

  Okey roared with laughter.

  “Uncle Chick, can’t a new pony get scared in the dark?” asked Tina.

  “They don’t like it too well at first—to go in the dark mine,” said Uncle Chick. “You have to lead them into start, and coax them a bit. After a trip or two, they seem to like it. In a week’s time, Bright Eyes will think he’s been a mine pony all his life.”

  “But oh—it’s so black-dark in the mine!” Tina remembered how she had felt herself. She put her arms around
the pony’s neck again. She whispered in his ear, “If you don’t like it, Bright Eyes, you just give Okey a swift kick!”

  The children rode back on Snowball and Ginger and put them in Grandpa’s barn. Then they ran off to school and got there just as the last bell rang.

  “Oh, I hope nothing happens to Bright Eyes!” said Tina, as they were taking off their wraps.

  “So do I,” said Jeff.

  It was only a week later that it happened. Jeff came tearing in the house with the news.

  “I saw Okey in the pick-up!” panted Jeff. “He’s going to Mapleton for the vet. Something’s happened to Bright Eyes!”

  “Oh no!” cried Tina. “You mean Diamond, not Bright Eyes. Diamond is the wild one.”

  “Okey said Bright Eyes, and he’s hurt bad,” said Jeff.

  “I bet Okey was mean and Bright Eyes kicked him,” said Tina. “I just know Bright Eyes don’t like Okey one bit. And I don’t either.”

  “Okey didn’t get kicked,” said Jeff. “It’s Bright Eyes, I tell you. They think his leg is broke.”

  “What happened?” asked Daddy.

  “Okey said Bright Eyes went crazy,” said Jeff. “He kicked his harness off and banged into the shuttle buggy and broke one of his hind legs.”

  “Oh no! I don’t believe it!” Tina began to cry.

  “Okey wanted to shoot him,” Jeff went on, “but Uncle Chick sent him for the vet.”

  Jeff and Tina and Daddy were at Grandpa’s when Uncle Chick drove up in his truck. There in the back lay Bright Eyes, with his leg in a splint. It took the three men and the vet to lift him out of the truck on a board and carry him into the stall.

  “Did Okey whip him, Uncle Chick?” asked Tina, after the vet went away. “I bet Okey was mean and made Bright Eyes mad.”

  “It wasn’t that way at all,” said Uncle Chick. “Now if it had been Diamond, I wouldn’t have been surprised. But you never can tell about these quiet ponies. Sometimes they surprise you. The ponies started running up the chute. Okey yelled but Bright Eyes didn’t get out of the way in time. The coal car rolled and before it flipped over, it hit him on the leg and hurt it bad. He was in pain and kicked a lot … We had a hard time getting him quiet.”