pon the woods and the mountain tops. There was something about it
that made me feel a man and a free man. There was twenty years of
slavery back of me to make me appreciate this.

And Ruth reading my thoughts in my eyes used to nestle closer to me
and the boy with his chin in his hands would stare out at sea and
dream his own dreams.

CHAPTER IX

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

As I said, with that first dollar in the ginger jar representing the
first actual saving I had ever effected in my whole life, my
imagination became fired with new plans. I saw no reason why I myself
should not become an employer. As in the next few weeks I enlarged my
circle of acquaintances and pushed my inquiries in every possible
direction I found this idea was in the air down here. The ambition of
all these people was towards complete independence. Either they hoped
to set up in business for themselves in this country or they looked
forward to saving enough to return to the land of their birth and live
there as small land owners. I speak more especially of the Italians
because just now I was thrown more in contact with them than the
others. In my city they, with the Irish, seemed peculiarly of real
emigrant stuff. The Jews were so clannish that they were a problem in
themselves; the Germans assimilated a little better and yet they too
were like one large family. They did not get into the city life very
much and even in their business stuck pretty closely to one line. For
a good many years they remained essentially Germans. But the Irish
were citizens from the time they landed and the Italians eventually
became such if by a slower process.

The former went into everything. They are a tremendously adaptable
people. But whatever they tackled they looked forward to independence
and generally won it. Even a man of so humble an ambition as Murphy
had accomplished this. The Italians either went into the fruit
business for which they seem to have a knack or served as day laborers
and saved. There was a man down here who was always ready to stake
them to a cart and a supply of fruit, at an exorbitant price to be
sure, but they pushed their carts patiently mile upon mile until in
the end they saved enough to buy one of their own. The next step was a
small fruit store. The laborers, once they had acquired a working
capital, took up many things--a lot of them going into the country and
buying deserted farms. It was wonderful what they did with this