She gave the baby over
to him, and the baby simply absorbed him.
'He was a new man. He could not drink whisky and kiss his baby. And
the miners--it was really absurd if it were not so pathetic. It was the
first baby in Black Rock, and they used to crowd Mavor's shop and peep
into the room at the back of it--I forgot to tell you that when he
lost his position as manager he opened a hardware shop, for his people
chucked him, and he was too proud to write home for money--just for a
chance to be asked in to see the baby. I came upon Nixon standing at the
back of the shop after he had seen the baby for the first time, sobbing
hard, and to my question he replied: "It's just like my own." You can't
understand this. But to men who have lived so long in the mountains that
they have forgotten what a baby looks like, who have had experience of
humanity only in its roughest, foulest form, this little mite, sweet
and clean, was like an angel fresh from heaven, the one link in all that
black camp that bound them to what was purest and best in their past.
Pages:
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88