even in their school books, which told in glowing words of poor lads who
had forsaken the country to become rich and famous in the cities, but
they never repeated, for they had never read the stories of those
unaccountable numbers who had "moved to town" and who had been swallowed
up by the city's whirlpool, to become slaves of the mills and the
factories, serfs of the bars and the counters, and who had been forced
to toil from dawn to dusk to barely eke out an existence that meant
residing high up in the simmering, sweltering tenements, or in damp,
pest-ridden basements, deep down in the bowels of the earth, which
coupled with improper food, quickly reduced their vitality, so that
although they were young in years, the merciless lash of the city's
fight for a living had bent their backs and prematurely aged them.

Joe and Jim realized that it would have been an impossibility for them
to wring from their mother her consent to let them try their luck in the
city, for since their father's death, they had become her moral support.
They felt ashamed to be loafing idly about the reservation until school
opened again and have their widowed mother support them, as they were
now sixteen years of age, and more than able to support not only
themselves, but could and would gladly have supported her had an
opportunity been offered them. The more they argued the matter between
themselves, the more they became resolved to journey to some city, and
at least until the time came for them to be on hand at school opening,
make their own way and perhaps their fortune, which seemed to them
within easy reach. They had saved almost fifty dollars, which had been
earned running errands and working as water-boys whenever an "extra"
gang had been sent from the division point to assist their father's crew
in putting in a new culvert, building a new switch or doing other heavy
work requiring more man-power then the reservation crew could supply.
This money was kept in a small savings bank, to which they had easy