she answered. "It's too much to pay. I can
make one for fifty cents as soon as I get time to sew."

That's the way Ruth was. Every day after this she made me change,
after I came back from my swim, into the business suit I wore when I
came down here, and which now by contrast looked almost new. She even
made me wear a tie with my flannel shirt. Every morning I started out
clean shaven and with my work clothes as fresh as though I were a
contractor myself. I objected at first because it seemed too much for
her to do to wash the things every day, but she said it was a good
deal easier than washing them once a week. Incidentally that was one
of her own little schemes for saving trouble and it seemed to me a
good one; instead of collecting her soiled clothes for seven days and
then tearing herself all to pieces with a whole hard forenoon's work,
she washed a little every day. By this plan it took her only about an
hour each morning to keep all the linen in the house clean and sweet.
We had the roof to dry it on and she never ironed anything except
perhaps the tablecloths and handkerchiefs. We had no company to cater
to and as long as we knew things were clean that's all we cared.

We got around the rock all right. It proved not to be a ledge after
all. I myself, however, didn't accomplish as much as I did the first
day, for I was slower in my movements. On the other hand, I think I
improved a little in my handling of the crowbar. At the noon hour I
tried to start a conversation with Anton', but he understood little
English and I knew no Italian, so we didn't get far. As he sat in a
group of his fellow countrymen laughing and jabbering he made me feel
distinctly like an outsider. There were one or two English-speaking
workmen besides myself, but somehow they didn't interest me as much as
these Italians. It may have been my imagination but they seemed to me
a decidedly inferior lot. As a rule they were men who took the job
only to keep themselves from starving and quit at the end of a week or
two only to come back when they needed more money.

I must make an exception of an Irishman I will call Dan Rafferty. He
was a big blue-eyed fellow, full of fun and fight, with a good natured
contempt of the Dagoes, and was a born leader. I noticed, the first
day, that he came nearer being the boss of the gang than the foreman,
and I suspect the latter himself noticed it, for he seemed to have it
in for Dan. There never was an especia