The Baker's Tale by Thomas Hauser

that they were promised to you.”
    A signal was given, and the mob moved forward. Ruby showed her ticket. Her name was compared to those on a registry. She was given a number—“27”—and instructed to move with the others.
    Dozens of seamen—well-muscled men, browned and hardened by their exposure to weather—were in view.
    â€œAll guns, gunpowder, knives, and other weapons must be turned over to the captain,” one of the seaman called out again and again. “They will be returned to you upon disembarking in America.”
    Ruby struggled with her bags and box.
    â€œWe’re going across,” one of the seamen said, as if the ship were a ferry crossing the Thames.
    On board the ship, Ruby was directed down a ladder and shown to a bunk—“27”—not much larger than her bed at home had been. It was to be shared with a mother and two young children. People swarmed around her, stumbling over each other amidst confusion.
    This was steerage, the lowest deck and cheapest class of ticket on the ship. Ruby had not known of cabins and steerage before.
    A bell sounded. Ruby returned with some of the others to the main deck. Small boats pulled the vessel away from the dock. Like a giant receiving the breath of life, the huge ship throbbed and its great wheels turned. Gathering speed, it moved away from the harbour.
    The shoreline of England grew more distant. Ruby stared longingly at it until her tear-filled eyes were as sore as her heart. The desolate feeling within her deepened and widened. Soon, much too soon, there was nothing to be seen but water.
    She felt now the full weight of the change upon her life and all that she had lost. Love, family, friendship, and home were shattered.
    â€œWhere am I going? What have I done?”
    She wished that she could tell the crew to stop the ship, turn it around, and return to England. All that she had known and loved was gone.
    Her destiny lay in an unknown land far beyond the horizon.

CHAPTER 7

    E dwin’s train left Euston Railway Station at eleven o’clock on Friday morning. For most of the day, it rolled through the English countryside, booming into the darkness of a tunnel now and then before bursting out into sunny meadows and fields where sheep were grazing.
    There were several stops in cities and another train that rumbled through woods, across a river where a mill was turning, down into the earth again, and up once more into the sunshine where villages clustered and church steeples rose.
    All the while, Edwin thought of Ruby.
    â€œShe has made a change within me. It was such a grand sensation when she put her arm through mine. More than anything, I would like that feeling again.”
    As the train neared its final stop, the landscape grew coarse. Mounds of brambles and weeds were heaped together. In the distance, a town lay shrouded in a dark haze. At least, Edwinsurmised the existence of a town because of the sullen blotch upon the horizon.
    The train advanced closer to the dismal sight. Stagnant pools where nothing green could live sweltered by the rails. Coal dust darkened shrunken leaves. There was little grass, nor had any bud fulfilled its promise. A great amount of iron lay about, twisted into various shapes. Axles, wedges, cogs, wheels, cranks, all rusting with age. Then huge whirling machines, spinning and writhing like tortured creatures, clanking their iron chains and screeching as though in torment.
    The train came to a halt in the shadow of a large brick building. A gloomy spirit fell upon Edwin. Dark smoke poured out of tall chimneys on every side, fouling the air and obscuring the setting sun with a dense black cloud.

    Man has extracted materials from the earth since the beginning of civilization. The earliest of these were used to make tools and weapons. The ancient Egyptians mined turquoise, copper, and gold for ornamentation. Succeeding empires advanced the means of securing whatever of value