JOHNNY
31
washtub, but the M1ssus kept putting it off because of the expense. It was
a deep cut almost down to the bone and it ached with a dull throbbing
pain that moved up the length of his arm. But Johnny said nothing and
went on pearl diving in the hot soapy water day after day because he
1·as
afraid that if he stopped working because of his thumb he would
br
fired.
Before he came to this camp in the mountains to work for the summer
he
had been a dishwasher in an Old Folks Home in Westchester and
when he decided to quit to go away to work in the mountains the boss
carne to him and said: Johnny, you no leave, you good worker, Johnny,
and Johnny knew it was a good job and he was getting twenty dollars
a month and board and food and the work was easy but he went away
to the mountains for a "vacation." After he had worked twu weeks ;n
the camp he regretted having left the Old Folks Home and said: Johnny,
one damn fool. Boss say to me, Johnny you no leave, but J ohnny one
damn fool and go to the mountains.
He got up in the morning when everybody was still asleep and the
mountains were heavy with mist and there was hoarfrost
011
the road.
Crawling tiredly into his wet stiff shoes he limped down to the firehouse
to make the furnace so there will be hot showers for the ;;uests when
;t
nine o'clock they came downstairs.
He cut wood in the yard for the stove for the little bowlegged chef
when at seven he came clumping ill-temperedly into the kitchen. Then
johnny washed the cups from the tea the guests had the night before
while they played a couple of rounds of bridge on the porch in the moon–
light. And later, standing up beside the waiters, he drank a cup of coffee.
When the waiters drank two or more cups of coffee to prop up their
falling eyelids, because as the chef said, they made "too much pushy-push
in
the bushes" at night, Johnny shook his head and said,
"You rich man. Rich man drink two cups of coffee."
He really said landowner.
J
n far away Poland there was a wife
and a son who had ser·;ed in the artillery and a little farm, no bi gger
than a handkerchief, and Johnny who had worked in the mines in Vilest
Virginia and in the kitchens of a hundred
re~taurants
and hotels an d homes
still
dreamed of someday going home to the little farm no bigger than
a handkerchief.
And at night in the tent when the Ue1man baker played the accorclion
and the pantryman who was the ex-army oftict:r blew smoke rings carefully
and the chef drank down his two
b~ttl~s
of beer, Johnny told stories,
