[Illustration: Brady's Bend as I knew it]
Adler found work at the blast-furnace, while I was set to building
huts for the miners on the east bank of the river where a clearing
had been made and called East Brady. On the other side of the
Allegheny the furnaces and rolling mills were hidden away in a
narrow, winding valley that set back into the forest-clad hills,
growing deeper and narrower with every mile. It was to me, who had
been used to seeing the sun rise and set over a level plain where
the winds of heaven blew as they listed, from the first like
a prison. I climbed the hills only to find that there were bigger
hills beyond--an endless sea of swelling billows of green without
a clearing in it. I spent all Sunday roaming through it, miles
and miles, to find an outlook from which I might see the end; but
there was none. A horrible fit of homesickness came upon me. The
days I managed to get through by working hard and making observations
on the American language. In this I had a volunteer assistant in
Julia, the pretty, barefooted daughter of a coal-miner, who hung
around and took an interest in what was going on.
Pages:
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58