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Bunny went back to school, and the oil-workers took a hitch in their belts, hanging on by their eye teeth, as the saying is. Meantime, America was in the war, and Congress was passing a series of measures—one providing for a vast "liberty loan," to pay the war costs, and another for the registering of all men of fighting age, and the drafting of a huge army. And then began to come wild rumors of a truce with labor. It came first in connection with the railway men, many of whom were on strike for a living wage and better conditions. The railways were absolutely vital to the winning of the war, and so Congress must authorize the Government to intervene in disputes, and make terms with the unions, and see that everybody got a square deal. If such steps were taken for the railway men, they would surely have to be taken for others; the oil workers might get those rights of which the Employers' Federation was endeavoring to deprive them! The labor press was full of talk about the new deal that was coming, and telegrams came from labor headquarters in Washington, bidding the men at Paradise stand firm. It was like the "big scene" in the old "ten-twenty-thirty" melodrama that we used to see on the Bowery in our boyhood, in which the heroine is lashed to a log in the saw-mill, and being swiftly drawn to the place where she will be sliced down the middle; the hero comes galloping madly on horseback, and leaps from his steed, and smashes in the door with an axe, and springs to the lever and stops the machinery at exactly the critical instant. Or, if you want to be more high-brow and dignified, it was like the ancient Greek tragedies, in which, after the fates of all the characters have been tied into a hopeless knot, a god descends from the sky in a machine, and steps out, and resolves the perplexities, and virtue is triumphant and vice is cast down. You believe this, because it is in a Greek classic; but you will find it less easy to believe that the "open shop crowd" of California, the whole power of their industrial system, with all the millions of their banks, their political machine and their strike-breaking agencies, their spies and gunmen, and their state militiamen with machine-guns and armored cars in the background—that all this terrific power felt its hand suddenly grasped by a stronger hand, and drawn back from the throat of its victim! Another god descended from a machine—a lean old Yankee divinity, with a white goatee and a suit made of red and white stripes with blue stars spangled over it; Uncle Sam himself stretched out his mighty hand, and declared that oil workers were human beings as well as citizens, and would be protected in their rights as both! The announcement came from labor headquarters in Washington, saying that the oil workers would get a living wage and the eight hour day; a government "conciliator" would be sent out to see to it, and meantime, they were to go back to work, so that the benevolent old gentleman with the white goatee and the red, white and blue suit might have all the oil he needed. The President of the United States was making speeches—oh, such wonderful, convincing speeches, about the war that was to end war, and bring justice to all mankind, and establish the rule of the people and by the people and for the people over all the earth. Such thrills as shook all hearts, such a fervor of consecration! And such rejoicing on the play-ground of the school-house at Paradise, when the news came that the gunmen would slink back into the slums from which they had come, and that work was to start up at once! Dad got the news early in the morning, and Bunny danced all over the house, and made as much noise as if it were a foot-ball game; and Dad said he felt pretty good himself, it would sure be nice to get those wells on production again, he wouldn't have been able to hold on another week without them. And Bunny said he'd cut school in the afternoon, and they'd drive out and see the celebration, and make friends with everybody again, and get things started. The first thing they would do was to tear down that barbed wire fence that separated capital from labor! In the new world there would be no more barbed wire and no more bad feeling—the roses would bloom on the hedges in front of the workers' homes, and there would be a book of the President's speeches in the reading-room, and all the oil workers would have time to read it!
CHAPTER VIII
THE WAR I
Eunice Hoyt was the daughter of "Tommy" Hoyt, of Hoyt and Brainerd, whose advertisements of investment securities you saw on the financial pages of the Beach City newspapers. Tommy you saw at racing meets and boxing events, and generally you noticed that he had with him a new lady, highly and artificially colored; sometimes she wore a veil, and you kept tactfully out of the way, understanding that Tommy was "playing the woman game." Mrs. Tommy you saw pictured among "the distinguished hostesses of the week"; she went in for art, and there would be a soulful young man about the house. The servants understood the situation, and so did Eunice. She was dark and slender, a quick and impatient little thing, with an abundance of what was currently known as "pep." She was in two of Bunny's classes, and discovering that he was a serious youngster, she worried him by saying sharp and cutting things, that he was never sure whether she meant or not; he dared not ask, because then she would tease him worse than ever. There were always half a dozen fellows following her about, so it was easy to keep out of the way. But one Saturday afternoon Bunny won the 220-yard run for the school team, and that made him a bit of a hero, and boys and girls swarmed about him, cheering and patting him on the back. Then, after he had had his shower and was dressed, he went out in search of his car, and there was Eunice just getting into her roadster, and she said, "Let me take you." He answered, "I've got my own car here," and she exclaimed, "Why, you horrid rude thing! Get into this car at once, sir!" So of course he did, a little rattled. When she said, "Are you afraid somebody will steal that cheap old car of yours?"—was it up to him to defend the newness and expensiveness of Dad's latest gift? "Bunny," she said, "my mother and father are having a row at home, and it's horrid there." "Well, what do you want to do?" said he, sympathetically. "Let's go somewhere and have supper—away from everything. You come, and it'll be my party." So they drove for an hour or so, and climbed by a winding road to the top of a hill, and there was a cafe, with a terrace looking out over a bay and a rocky shore-line that would have been famous if it had been in Italy. They ate supper, and chatted about school affairs, and Eunice told him about her home-life and how some one had written her mother a letter revealing that her father had paid a lot of money to some woman, and Mrs. Hoyt was furious, because why should men do things that made it necessary for them to pay money? The sun set over the ocean, and the lights came out along the shore, and a big full moon behind the hills; and Eunice said, "Do you like me a little bit, Bunny?" He answered that of course he did, and she said, "But you don't show it ever." "Well," he explained, "I never know quite what to make of you, because you always kid me;" and to that she said, "I know, Bunny, I'm a horrid mean thing, but the truth is, I just do that to keep my courage up. I'm afraid of you, too, because you're serious, and I'm just a silly chatterbox, and I have to make a show." So after that Bunny was able to enjoy the party. They got into the car and drove again. The road ran through a tangle of sand-dunes, high up above the ocean. "Oh, this is lovely!" said Eunice, and when they came to a place where the ground was firm she ran the car off the pavement and parked it. "Let's go and watch the ocean," she said. "There's a rug in the back." So Bunny got the rug out, and they walked over the dunes, and sat on top of one, and listened to the waves below; and Eunice smoked a cigarette, and scolded Bunny because he was a horrid little Puritan that wouldn't keep her company. Presently a man came walking by, and glanced at them as he passed, and Eunice said, "Have you got a gun?" And when he said that he hadn't, she remarked, "You're supposed to bring a gun nowadays when you go on a petting party." Bunny had not realized that this was exactly a petting party, but you can see that it would not have been polite of him to say so. He listened while she told him about bandits who were making a business of holding up couples parked by the road-side; some were beastly to the girls, and what would Bunny do if one of them were suddenly to appear? Bunny said he didn't know, but of course he'd defend a woman the best he could. "But I don't want you to get shot," said Eunic
e. "We've a scandal already in our family." So she said, "Let's get lost, Bunny;" and he gathered up the rug and they wandered over the dunes—a long way from the road and from everything; and in one of the hollows, a still nest where the sand was soft and smooth, she told him to spread the rug again, and there they sat, hid from everything save the round yellow moon, which has looked down upon millions and millions of such scenes, and never yet betrayed a confidence. They sat close together, and Eunice rested her head against Bunny's shoulder and whispered, "Do you care for me a little bit?" He assured her that he did, but she said, no, he must think she was a horrid bold thing; and when he declared that he didn't, she said, "Then why don't you kiss me?" He began to kiss her, but she wasn't satisfied—he didn't mean it, she said; and suddenly she whispered, "Bunny, I don't believe you've ever really loved a girl before!" He admitted that he had not. "I've always known you were a queer boy," she said. "What is the matter?" Bunny said he didn't quite know; he was trembling violently, because he had never had anything like this happen to him, and several different emotions clamored at the same time, and which one should he follow? "Let me teach you, Bunny," whispered the girl; and when he did not answer at once, she put her lips upon his, in a long kiss that made him dizzy. He murmured faintly that something might happen, she might get into trouble; but she told him not to worry about that, she knew about those things and taken the needed precautions.
Such was the way of Bunny's initiation into the adult life. Gone were the days of happy innocence when he could be content to sit holding hands with Rosie Taintor. "Holding hands" was now walking on a slippery ledge, over a dark abyss where pleasure and pain were so mingled you could hardly tell them apart. Bunny was frightened by the storm of emotion which seized upon him, and still more by the behavior of the girl in his arms; a kind of frenzy shook her, she clung to him in a convulsion of excitement, half sobbing, half laughing, with little cries as of an animal in pain. And Bunny must share this delirium, she would not have it otherwise, she was furious in her exactions, the mistress of these dark rites, and he must obey her will. The first time, the boy was overwhelmed by the realization of what he had done, but she clung to him, whispering, "Oh, Bunny, don't be ashamed! No, no! I won't let you be ashamed! Why haven't we got a right to be happy? Oh, please, please, be happy!" So he had to promise, and do his best. "Oh, Bunny, you are such a sweet lover! And we are going to have such good times." This was her crooning song, wrapped in his arms, there under the spring-time moon, which is the same in California as everywhere else in the world. And when the chill of the California night began to creep into their bones, they could hardly tear themselves apart, but all the way over the dunes they walked arm in arm, kissing as they went. "Oh, Bunny, it was bold and bad of me, but tell me you forgive me, tell me you're glad I did it!" It appeared to be his duty to comfort her. Driving back to Beach City they talked about this adventure. Bunny hadn't thought much about sex, he had no philosophy ready at hand, but Eunice had hers, and told it to him simply and frankly. The old people taught you a lot of rubbish about it, and then they sneaked off and lived differently, and why should you let yourself be fooled by silly "don'ts"? Love was all right if you were decent about it, and when you had found out that you didn't have to have any babies, why must you bother to get married? Most married people were miserable anyhow, and if the young people could find a way to be happy, it was up to them, and what the old folks didn't know wouldn't hurt them. Did Bunny see anything wrong with that? Bunny answered that he didn't; the reason he had been "such an old prude," was just that he hadn't got to know Eunice. She said that men were supposed not to care for a girl who made advances to them; therefore, she added with her flash of mischief, it would be up to Bunny to make some of the advances from now on. He said he would do so, and would have started at once, only Eunice was driving at forty-some miles an hour, and it would be better to hurt her feelings than to upset the car. Were there other girls like Eunice, Bunny wanted to know, and she said there were plenty, and named a few, and Bunny was surprised and a little shocked, because some of them were prominent in class affairs, and decorous-seeming. Eunice told him about their ways, and it was a good deal like a secret society, without any officers or formal ritual, but with a strict code none the less. They called themselves "the Zulus," these bold spirits who had dared to do as they pleased; they kept one another's secrets faithfully, and helped the younger ones to that knowledge which was so essential to happiness. The old guarded this knowledge jealously— how to keep from having babies, and what to do if you got "caught." There was a secret lore about the art of love, and books that you bought in certain stores, or found stowed away behind other books in your father's den. Such volumes would be passed about and read by scores. It was a new ethical code that these young people were making for themselves, without any help from their parents. Eunice did not know, of course, that she was doing anything so imposing as that; she just talked about her feelings, and what she liked and what she feared. Was it right to love this way or that? And what did Bunny think about the possibility of loving two girls at the same time? Claire Reynolds said you couldn't, but Billy Rosen said you could, and they were wrangling all the time. But Mary Blake got along quite happily with two boys who loved her and had agreed not to be jealous.—This was a new world into which Bunny was being introduced, and he asked a lot of questions, and could not help blushing at some of Eunice's matter-of-fact replies. Bunny crept into the house at two o'clock in the morning, and no member of the family was the wiser. But he was equally as late the next night, and the next—had he not promised Eunice to "make the advances"? So of course the family realized that something was up, and it was interesting to see their reactions. Aunt Emma and Grandma were in a terrible "state," but they could not say why—such was the handicap the old generation imposed upon themselves. They both went to Dad, but could only talk about late hours and their effect on a boy's health. And Dad himself could not do much more. When Bunny said that he had been taking Eunice Hoyt driving, Dad asked about her, was she a "nice" girl? Bunny answered that she was the treasurer of the girls' basket-ball team, and her father was Mr. Hoyt, whom Dad knew, and she had her own car and had even tried to pay for the supper. So there could be no idea that Bunny was being "vamped," and all Dad said was, "Take it easy, son, don't try to live your whole life in a couple of weeks." Also there was Bunny's sister, and that was curious. Had some underground message come to Bertie, through connections with the "Zulus"? All that she said was, "I'm glad you've consented to take an interest in something beside oil and strikers for a change." But behind that sentence lay such an ocean of calm feminine knowledge! Bunny was started upon a new train of thought. Could it be that late hours meant the same thing for his sister that they had suddenly come to mean for him? Bertie was supposed to be dancing; and did she always come directly home, or did she also park by the waysides? Bunny had got over being shocked by the parking of Eunice's car, but it took him longer to get used to the idea of the parking of his sister's car. He began to notice, as he drove along the highways in the evening—what a great number of parked cars there were!
Oil! A Novel by Upton Sinclair Page 23