Page:The Cannery Boat.pdf/224

214 “Say you’re sorry.”

“Go on, say it.”

Hands shot out triumphantly and shook him by the shoulder. Again he let out a wild yell.

“Get away, get away! It’s because people like you play round when you should be working that they go starting efficiency committees. Get away, I tell you.”

There was a burst of merriment from the girls.

“Efficiency committee, ha, ha, ha!”

Taking a chance while they were laughing, the boy dashed away merrily with the truck. The next minute one girl excitedly pulled the sleeve of the one who wore the council badge. “Look, Kimi-chan, the boss is watching us from upstairs.”

Sure enough, from a window directly above them, the bald-headed old boss, his face puffed up with anger like a melon after a shower, was glaring down at them.

“How would you like to begin some work?”

“Yes, we are” and every girl knelt down at her work again.

The dumpling with the scraped knee turned to Kimi-chan and said: “It doesn’t hurt to do a little go-slow when the dirty old boss treats us so rotten, and sends us out here to do the same old job every day. Listen Kimi-chan”

“But, Kimi-chan, if the efficiency committee is really formed, we won’t be able to take it easy like this, will we?” One girl with their hair waved in Western style bent over and asked.

But Kimi-chan was non-committal in her answer; she was thinking of her boy friend.