Fortune Is a Woman - Elizabeth Adler [106]
“In a few minutes I was on my way again, hampered by my big boots and my unaccustomed clothing. But I was warm, I had food in my belly, and I felt stronger. And I knew I had escaped some evil I did not understand.
“I walked all that day and all the next night, stopping only to search for food, berries, roots, apples, mushrooms. I would have died happy for a bowl of steaming hot rice-gruel. I had no idea if what I was eating was poison, but I was so hungry I no longer cared. If fate willed it, I would live; if not, I would die.
“The trees thinned out and the landscape became more open. Instead of forest there were undulating grassy hills, meadows, and orchards. I hid myself in the hedgerows by day and walked at night. One morning, as dawn broke, I found myself on the outskirts of a village similar to the one I had seen before. Only this was larger, the houses were bigger, there were flower gardens and stores and all around the hills were strange-looking bushes planted in neat rows. And working in the fields were Chinamen.
“My eyes bulged from my head in astonishment. I thought to myself that this must be the Gold Mountain where the men from Toishan are making their fortunes. I stared around looking for the piles of gold and silver, but all I saw were the strange bushes and the men pruning them. I ran joyously toward them, shouting and waving my arms, and they looked up, exclaiming in astonishment at the little Celestial boy in the big black boots. There were dozens of them and they gathered around as I told my story, and they gasped with horror, cursing the gwailo ship’s captain as an evil devil and the son of a whore. They told me this was not the Gold Mountain but a place where they grew grapes to make the barbarians’ wine. Mostly they worked digging the caves under the ground, but because of the frost they had been sent to look after the vines that day.
“I looked hard at them. They were not dressed in the silks of rich men; they wore the coarse cotton smocks of the peasant. They were tilling fields the way they did at home and digging caves deep underground. Where then was the Gold Mountain? I asked them eagerly. They shook their heads. They had never found it.
“They took me back with them that evening to see their master. They said though I was young, I was strong and could dig harder than any of them. The master was big, like all the foreign devils. His shoulders were broad like the water buffalo’s and I thought he could dig harder than all of us. But he wore elegant britches and a jacket of calfskin and he sat like a god astride his beautiful black stallion that danced so impatiently. He owned all the land we could see and now he owned us too.
“‘Put him to work then and we’ll see,’ he said coldly.
“I went with all the other Celestials to the long house where they ate and slept. A Chinese cook was ladling out bowls of rice and vegetables and the saliva poured into my mouth at its smell. I devoured two bowls and felt that my stomach would surely burst. Then, having no bedmat, I curled up in a corner and slept the way a child should.
“I was awakened before daybreak and with some maize-gruel and steamed bread in my belly followed the others to the caves. The foreman handed me a pick and shovel and we walked down the sloping passage deep under the earth. At the end of the cavern the men began hacking out the rock. In an hour the muscles in my shoulders were burning and my heart threatened to burst. I was covered in sweat and dirt but I dare not stop. I worked alongside the others, matching their every stroke with the pick and then shoveling away the rocks. After a few hours we stopped and they took out their small wooden rice-buckets and ate. But I had no bucket and no lunch and I wandered away so that they would not feel embarrassed and be forced to share their meager meal with me. I sank into a corner and rubbed my aching shoulders. I was exhausted and wanted to cry, but I knew I must keep up with them in order to be given a job.
“A week passed, each day following the