Jadvyga likewise paints cans, but then she has an invalid
mother and three little sisters to support by it, and so she
does not spend her wages for shirt-waists. Jadvyga is
small and delicate, with jet-black eyes and hair, the latter
twisted into a little knot and tied on the top of her head.
She wears an old white dress which she has made herself
and worn to parties for the past five years; it is high-
waisted -- almost under her arms, and not very becoming,
-- but that does not trouble Jadvyga, who is dancing with
her Mikolas. She is small, while he is big and powerful;
she nestles in his arms as if she would hide herself from
view, and leans her head upon his shoulder. He in turn
has clasped his arms tightly around her, as if he would
carry her away; and so she dances, and will dance the
entire evening, and would dance forever, in ecstasy of
bliss. You would smile, perhaps, to see them -- but you
would not smile if you knew all the story. This is the
fifth year, now, that Jadvyga has been engaged to Mikolas,
and her heart is sick. They would have been married in
the beginning, only Mikolas has a father who is drunk all
day, and he is the only other man in a large family. Even
so they might have managed it (for Mikolas is a skilled
man) but for cruel accidents which have almost taken the
heart out of them. He is a beef-boner, and that is a dan~
gerous trade, especially when you are on piece-work and
trying to earn a bride. Your hands are slippery, and
your knife is slippery, and you are toiling like mad, when
somebody happens to speak to you, or you strike a bone.
Then your hand slips up on the blade, and there is a fear~
ful gash. And that would not be so bad, only for the
deadly contagion. The cut may heal, but you never can
tell. Twice now, within the last three years, Mikolas has
been lying at home with blood-poisoning -- once for three
months and once for nearly seven. The last time, too, he
lost his job, and that meant six weeks more of standing
at the doors of the packing-houses, at six o'clock on bitter
winter mornings, with a foot of snow on the ground and
more in the air. There are learned people who can tell
you out of the statistics that beef-boners make forty cents

[[12]]

p011 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p012w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p013

v?