Page:Maud Howe - A Newport Aquarelle.djvu/183

 following him, more and more amazed by the words of his friend. It was not like Farwell, this sort of thing; he could not understand it, and, thinking the close air of the mine might have affected his head, he took his friend by the arm, and they soon were out of the dark, damp, underground region, where thousands of human beings are condemned to pass the greater part of their lives in toiling for treasures for other men to waste, out into the pure air of the splendid September day.

Their eyes, accustomed to the darkness of the mine, were dazzled by the light, and Farwell shaded the too sudden glory of the sunshine with his hand. In the vast open plain where they found themselves were many works, some of them deserted and dilapidated, others with every sign of busy mining life about them. The rude buildings which stood at the mouth of their mine were fallen into a lamentable state of unrepair, but to the sanguine eyes of Cartwright