had heard. At the time-office, which he found already
open, the clerk told him that Ona's check had been turned
in the night before, showing that she had left her work.

After that there was nothing for him to do but wait,
pacing back and forth in the snow, meantime, to keep from
freezing. Already the yards were full of activity; cattle
were being unloaded from the cars in the distance, and
across the way the "beef-luggers" were toiling in the
darkness, carrying two-hundred-pound quarters of bullocks
into the refrigerator-cars. Before the first streaks of day~
light there came the crowding throngs of working-men,
shivering, and swinging their dinner-pails as they hurried
by. Jurgis took up his stand by the time-office window,
where alone there was light enough for him to see; the
snow fell so thick that it was only by peering closely that
he could make sure that Ona did not pass him.

Seven o'clock came, the hour when the great packing-
machine began to move. Jurgis ought to have been at
his place in the fertilizer-mill; but instead he was waiting,
in an agony of fear, for Ona. It was fifteen minutes after
the hour when he saw a form emerge from the snow-mist,
and sprang toward it with a cry. It was she, running
swiftly; as she saw him, she staggered forward, and half
fell into his outstretched arms.

"What has been the matter?" he cried, anxiously.
"Where have you been?"

It was several seconds before she could get breath to
answer him. "I couldn't get home," she exclaimed. "The
snow -- the cars had stopped."

"But where were you then?" he demanded.

"I had to go home with a friend," she panted -- "with
Jadvyga."

Jurgis drew a deep breath; but then he noticed that she
was sobbing and trembling -- as if in one of those nervous
crises that he dreaded so. "But what's the matter?" he
cried. "What has happened?"

"Oh, Jurgis, I was so frightened!" she said, clinging
to him wildly. "I have been so worried!"

They were near the time-station window, and people

[[170]]

p169 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p170w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p171

v?