the queen laugh so merrily,
and never before had I realized what a superb, handsome animal she was.
There was a certain rhythmic movement as she raised and lowered her body
over the truck. The excitement of the moment added a deeper color to her
always splendid rose-and-white complexion, upon which the steam-laden
atmosphere distilled perpetually that soft dewiness characteristic of
the perfect complexion of young children or of goddesses. And like a
goddess the queen appeared that moment,--an untidy, earth-chained
goddess, mirthful, voluptuous.

"She thinks she's mighty fine, don't she?" whispered my one-eyed friend.

The boss halted at the truck, and the queen looked up with ill-feigned
surprise, as if she hadn't known for five minutes that he was in the
room. He seemed the personification of prosperous, ignorant vulgarity,
and his manner, as he swept his eye carelessly over his queen's
subjects, was one of good-natured insolence. He didn't tarry long, and
if guilty of the gentle dalliance of which he was accused, it was plain
to be seen that he did not allow it to interfere with the discipline of
the "Pearl."

At lunch-time the one-eyed girl and I went off to the same corner as
before, and no sooner had we begun to divide our pickles and sandwiches
than in sauntered the foreman, munching alternately from a cylinder of
bologna sausage in one hand and a chunk of dry bread in the other.

"Well, how goes it?" he asked pleasantly, dropping his long, lank frame
upon a bundle of hotel table-linen. "Did you try my advice about
standin' slack-like?"

We replied to his question while the one-eyed girl carved a dill pickle
and a sweet pickle each into three portions.

He related how he had come to the "Pearl" six years ago, and had worked
himself up to his present job, which was not to be sneezed at, he said,
considering that eighteen dollars a week wasn't to be picked up every
day--and steady work, too, no layoffs and no shut-downs. He emphasized
the fact, evidently very important in his mind, that he wasn't married,
that he had not met any girl yet that would have him, which my companion
insisted couldn't possibly be true, or if it was, then none of the girls
he had ever asked had any taste at all. He lived at home with his
mother, whom he didn't allow to "work out" since he'd been big enough to
earn a living for her. There was a sister, too, at home, who had a job
in a near-by manufactory; but she was engaged, and goin