THE WINNING BATTLE
By Harold Carter.
. Bonner sat at the long table in
the room of the Griffis Mailing
Company, addressing envelopes.
On each side of him and across
sat others of his trade, their fin
gers dexterously co-operating
with that subconscious portion of
their brain which habit had
tttR
"I'm Sick," Said Bonner, Humbly.
trained to its task. The move
ments were systemized and all to
the end that a few more envelopes
might be addressed during the
ten hours allotted daily. The eye
read the address unconsciously,
the right hand wrote it, the left
hand shifted th'e written envelope
to the pile of those finished, and
the same hand movement, on its
return, brought down a clean, un
addressed envelope for the pen.
Bonner could write twelve hun
dred a day, which netted him a
whole dollar and that meant a
fair living at the hotel.
Just now grumbles were run
ning round the table, for a series
of four-line addresses instead of
three had come into being, and
that would mean less money for
the day's work. But Bonner was
not grumbling. Instead, while he
wrote unconsciously, he was
watching the girl with the fair
hair who, at another table, was
busily sealing the envelopes with
sponge, and water-well. He had
noticed her during the entire four
days that he had worked for that
particular company. The girls on
each side of her chewed gum,
patted their hair and indulged in
badinage, reminiscences, when
not checked by the curt com
mands of their boss, and snickers.
But none of them cast so m'uch as
a look at the wretched men at the
other table. They were below
contempt ; they were professional
addressers less than men. Not
one of them could earn a living
wage for a wife.
But the girl with the fair hair
seemed of a different mold. She
was quiet and refined ; she worked
how hard she worked ! Bonner
had walked home with her the
evening before. She lived alone
in a mean room in a meaner tene
ment, for which she paid a dollar
a week to a hard-faced landlady,
and she coughed incessantly. She
was working to get the money' to
go west, wliere the clean air
would cure her. She had seventy
dollars saved by two years of toil