Part 64 (2/2)

She smiled in her triumph and made the very womanly comment: ”But I haven't a thing to wear. Do you know a good ladies' tailor who can fit me out with overalls, some one who has been 'Breeches-maker to the Queen' and can drape a baby-blue denim pant modishly?”

The upshot of it was that she decided to make her own trousseau, and she went shopping for materials and patterns. She ended by visiting an emporium for ”gents' furnis.h.i.+ngs.” The storekeeper asked her what size her husband wore, and she said:

”Just about my own.”

He gave her the smallest suit in stock, and she held it up against her. It was much too brief, and she was heartened to know that there were workmen littler than she.

She bought the garment that came nearest to her own dimensions, and hurried home with it joyously. It proved to be a perfect misfit, and she worked over it as if it were a coming-out gown; and indeed it was her costume for her debut into the world of manual labor.

Abbie dropped in and surprised her in her att.i.tudes and was handsomely scandalized:

”When's the masquerade?” she asked.

Mamise told her of her new career.

Abbie was appalled. ”It's against the Bible for a woman to wear a man's things!” she protested. Abbie could quote the Scripture for every discouraging purpose.

”I'd rather wear them than wash them,” said Mamise; ”and if you'll take my advice you'll get a suit of overalls yourself and earn an honest living and five times as much money as Jake would give you--if he ever gave you any.”

But Abbie wailed that Mamise had gone indecent as well as crazy, and trembled at the thought of what the gossips along the row would do with the family reputation. The worst of it was that Mamise had money in the bank and did not have to work.

That was the incomprehensible thing to Jake Nuddle. He accepted the familiar theory that all capital is stolen goods, and he reproached Mamise with the double theft of poor folks' money and now of poor folks' work. Mamise's contention that there were not enough workmen for the country's needs fell on deaf ears, for Jake believed that work was a crime against the sacred cause of the laboring-man. His ideal of a laboring-man was one who seized the capital from the capitalists and then ceased to labor.

But Jake's too familiar eyes showed that he regarded Mamise as a very interesting spectacle. The rest of the workmen seemed to have the same opinion when she went to the yard in her overalls next morning. She was the first woman to take up man's work in the neighborhood, and she had to endure the most searching stares, grins, frowns, and comments that were meant to be overheard.

She struck all the men as immodest; some were offended and some were delighted. As usual, modesty was but another name for conformity.

Mamise had to face the glares of the conventional wives and daughters in their bodices that followed every contour, their light skirts that blew above the knees, and their provocative hats and ribbons. They made it plain to her that they were outraged by this shapeless pa.s.ser-by in the bifurcated potato-sack, with her hair tucked up under a vizored cap and her hands in coa.r.s.e mittens.

Mamise had studied the styles affected by the workmen as if they were fas.h.i.+on-plates from Paris, and she had equipped herself with a slouchy cap, heavy brogans, a thick sweater, a woolen s.h.i.+rt, and thick flannels underneath.

She was as well concealed as she could manage, and yet her femininity seemed to be emphasized by her very disguise. The roundness of bosom and hip and the fineness of shoulder differed too much from the masculine outline to be hidden. And somehow there was more coquetry in her careful carelessness than in all the exaggerated womanishness of the shanty belles. She had been a source of constant wonder to the community from the first. But now she was regarded as a downright menace to the peace and the morals of society.

Mamise reported to the superintendent and gave him Davidge's card. The old man respected Davidge's written orders and remembered the private instructions Davidge had given him to protect Mamise from annoyance at all costs. The superintendent treated her as if she were a child playing at salesmans.h.i.+p in a store. And this was the att.i.tude of all the men except a few incorrigible gallants, who tried to start flirtations and make movie dates with her.

Sutton, the master riveter, alone received her with just the right hospitality. He had no fear that she would steal his job or his glory or that any man would. He had talked with her often and let her practise at his riveting-gun. He had explained that her ambition to be a riveter was hopeless, since it would take at least three month's apprentices.h.i.+p before she could hope to begin on such a career. But her sincere longings to be a builder and not a loafer won his respect.

When she expressed a shy wish to belong to his riveting-gang he said:

”Right you are, miss--or should I say mister?”

”I'd be proud if you'd call me bo,” said Mamise.

”Right you are, bo. We'll start you in as a pa.s.ser-boy. I'll be glad to get rid of that sleep-walker. Hay, Snotty!” he called to a grimy lad with an old bucket. The youth rubbed the back of his greasy glove across the snub of nose that had won him his name, and, s.h.i.+fting his precocious quid, growled:

”Ah, what!”

”Ah, go git your time--or change to another gang. Tell the supe. I'm not fast enough for you. Go on--beat it!”

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