neer. I applied to Davidson for a
miner's place only. At first he refused, after looking at my hands and
satisfying himself that I had had no experience in practical mining.
But, as they pay miners here only by output--a certain price per ton for
the coal a miner gets out--I persuaded him at last to let me go into a
heading with a pick and a shovel, and a package of blasting powder.

Then I wrote to Mary, telling her of my situation, and charging her that
she must from that day forth pay the cost of her living out of such
money as I could send her. In order that I might send her enough--for I
was determined that she should not be in any remotest way a dependent--I
instantly cut off all my personal expenses. I had my soldier blanket,
and my overalls. I needed no other clothes, for in the mine I always go
barefoot. I was well used to sleeping out of doors, so I slept on the
ground under the coal chutes. I took the job of cooking for a gang of
bachelor miners, who gave me my board for my services.

In that way I planned to send all of my wages to Mary. But I didn't
really know Mary. I thought of her always as a tenderly nurtured girl,
who must be shielded at all hazards against hardship of every kind; and
I meant so to shield her. But presently she revealed herself in another
character. You know how it was in the army. The gentlemen soldiers, the
men of good breeding, the men who had lived in luxury from childhood,
with servants to anticipate every need, real or fancied, were the
readiest to meet hardship, and to do hard work. You and I have seen
such men drudging, willingly and cheerfully, in the half-frozen mud of
the trenches, while other men, who had never known anything better than
a log cabin for a home, bacon and greens for dinner, and a bed of straw
to sleep upon, were almost in mutiny because of the hardships they must
endure as soldiers.

It is true that "Blood will tell," and it is as true with women as with
men. Blood asserted itself in Mary's case. Her answer was prompt to my
letter telling her I had taken work as a miner. She utterly repudiated
the thought that she was to go on living in idleness, while I should go
on toiling to furnish her the means of living so. I shall never forget
her words:

"I am coming to you quickly, Richard, to convert your miner's cabin into
a home. Where the husband is, the wife should be with all she knows of
helpfulness and cheer."

And she came. From that hour to this I hav