Show A SHAKEN ATTACHMENT The Assistance of an Earthquake in a Momentous Decision The cjinneiy cook looked nervously at his watch Quarter past S and no fruit Ho stooped to the lank cock and three experimental jets of steam sputtered up in impatient bubbles through the cold water Somewhat relieved re-lieved he shut lie valve and glanced at time clock on the wall Apparently it had slopped like the test of the works The slowest gang of girls I ever saw he snorted Dave was U high pressure boiler but he frequently let offA A youngish brownwhiskered man In a pink golf shirt Jumped on the edge of the tank and balanced there perilously He waa the manager of lie California Consolidated Apricot company Kestlcasness and vehemence boiled down ho often said he paid Dave extra wages to help him fume One reason why the manager managed man-aged everything so well waa because ho knew HO well how to manage the manager Hang it Dave said he lie mImi f utc a girl gets to be good for anything i she quits and marries It I could keep j my best help life would bo worth llv 1 p ing Come girls come It quickened ihe workers across lie half partition this clarion call amid thu glimpse of the managers tense face The boss is getting cranky said a brownhaired girl with rubber glove lingers on hurriedly poking a half apricot through the little round hole In the top of the can Ail the packers pack-ers had their fingers protected against the cruel cutve of the tin While cotton I cot-ton rags would do Have you noticed how the boss hun duded up lately asked the blonde who sozzled the syrup Into the packed cans with Ihe rubber lawn hose that came don from the tat In the attic She was rather stately and ambrosial and reminded one of Hebe on a frfezc Irrigating her row of pods with sweetened sweet-ened water Tho California Consolidated Consoli-dated had dumped a ton of sugar Into ht1 nectar pots hint very morning Dont you sabo asked another girl Jessie did pretty pronto Spanish adapts itself elegantly to slung in the Southwest Oh youre locoed rejoined hObo V swishing Limo nectarous nozzle from one little tin god to another with an oly V slan disregard of the spill The manager man-ager will look above Jcs3lcMshe add pcl You see Dave had turned the valve again and the steam roared Into one of the big tanks Another hissed and growled and the conversation of the girls wal I Inaudible The packers had caught up II I with the processroom and the aprl V cot factory was In full blast How deftly Iho sealer blistered the yarn of solder around lie can lops which L spun on the revolving diaka In front of him The metal string ran down from a coil over his head the whirling can I caught it and lie hot iron tied the knot The other workers might Call I behind but the senior could stand In his tracks hold his hands over tho whirligigs look pleasant and keep caught up The manager drew a breath of satis thou as he saw the platform of cans I lowered into the hissing bath Give 1 em fortyfive minutes this time I Dave he said and passed into tht labeling shed If there was anything that pleased I the manager more than another it was Ills labeling department and perhaps he could not have told whether his d labels or his labeler gave him the more I pleasure To the eye they were equal ly 1 Inviting The cream and yellow un dcMlones of the enameled wrappers appealed lo ones Imagination they lasted good Upon them the designer had ripened two Juicy apricots sug g9Sing thai time only bite in the world worth taking came from the fabulous orchards of California Its the label nnd not the stock that sells time pack the manager would admit lu a confi dential moment The golden apples of the Ilesturldos would have humbugged moro peonlo than they did had there been lithographers In those days Jessies left hand picked up a gus tonIng label and her right seized a can of fruit one end of the label nrted dftlnllly through a little pool of paste at the end of her bench the can revolved re-volved once and rolled itself Into the wrapper done An ugly tin had jurned Into thing of beauty Jessie had merely beckoned and it had Jumped into Its yellow Jacket Small wonder was Jt that the ethic girls thought she had beckoned the manager into his pink shirt He stood for a moment and admired her The lines of her fair young face and blooming figure had not been haidened by lie months she had spent In the cannery earning her 100 1 a day I wonder If I shall lose her too the manager said to himself It would be hard to tell all that ts in his thoughts then Most of tno time he was thinking of the success of the company and the difficulty of kcenlntr good help By Jove he went on his countenance lighting up with a busi ness Inspiration Ill put her picture on the new plo label This enthusiastic Intention was In tended as a compliment and perhaps more With his absorbing devotion the fruit trade and his glory In the to standing of his brands possibly the manager could not have thought of n happier distinction than having ones face stamped in green and gold on the glittering labels of the California Con solidated No 1 Pie Apricot And In deed has not la diva been flattered into serving the less gorgeous designs of tooth powder and soap There was a little hiss an audible fermentation then a pop and a slam A pyramid of cans toppled over and a splash of yellow luscjousncss was flung upon the managers golf shirt Jcsslo wiped a sticky blotch from her rosy face A box of freshly labeled tins In I disgrace I WIIH Cussed carelessness exclaimed the ahgry manager See here Dave Sir1 Another burst Can set awn away with a leak In it again Why dont stop such slovenly work you The mender went over cm all tarot Dave mut With his eyes shut commented LImo manager severely Accidents will happen the persisted cook If theres another In your depart menl therell lie a shakeup The managers Comic closed the con versation with a sort of bang It hurt Dave as though his linger had been caught against the door jamb and the worst of the pain was that JossJe had heard Tho manager had not said any thing so very bad If ho had not said Jt before Jessie Dave wondered If there was any foundation for the girls gos sip about thu pink shirt and all that He turned a flushed and injured face toward Jesaic Hurt Jcss he asked No sln laughed still beckoning lo Limo cans That was all but It seemed to soothe Dave and ho lauched Jes sic laughed too The manager was In his office seriously divesting himself of apricot Juice and sugar It seemed cooler in the steamy kitch en though time mercury was rising Through the open door Dave soon saw the manager strolling among the hurry ing cuftorp Somo of the girls could halve the cot and flip out limo pit with I one quick twist of knife and thumb The motion seemed simple but you could not understand It as first sight Have cm look a little sharper after their sorting Miss Bumble the man ager called afler a flash of Ills quick eye around time room All right sir said the forolady who was clicking a hole with a ticket punch in the tap of a fat and wheezing cutter who had broi c7i her pile of pits lo get credit for having finished u box of the cots A hole In her lag was worth C cents to her My aint It hot she puffed wiping her Inca with her npron II was late In July and the pun I beat rcmorspleasly on the corrugated V iron h roof The fat woman wondered why the manager had not sot some eucalyptus trees around the works as sho stood In the doorway for a moment and gazed longingly at the mountains half hidden by a gray gauze of dust Looks like a Santa Ana said the i wheezy one I Tray sang out a shrill trio of so pranos In tho cultlngroom Always short of trays I believe the boys eat em growled the manager I passing through to the kitchen and shaking things up all along the line The manager spent moro time In the kitchen than In his office not altogether I to the gratification of Dave Tho cook Jug was a critical pioccss and then from the back door of the kitchen tIme manager could keep one eye on the labelling Privately Dave had expos lulaled lo Hebe that it didnt do the help any good to eye cm all the time whereat Hebe winked privately and luminously at the sealer The last batch of time forenoon had boon put In to cook and Dave scanned the water closely to see If a telltale hub I 1 I ble was escaping from a leaky can SUch 1 dcnly the water quivered Dave felt a little Jar and heard a crash as If a tall stack of loaded trays had toppled over In the cuttingioom True lo his trick tho manager leaped I up and stood aslrlde a corner of one I of the big tanks peering across the half j partition to sec what the mischief There came a creaking sound The building swayed the partitions heav lug and tho boards grinding against each other There was another Jar as if a freight shifter had bumped Into the cannery then a tremendous splash and sprays of water hissed upon the sealers hot irons A second of Blaring stnrlllng silence was followed by I a chorus of shrieks that overwhelmed all things After the earthquake was over hue girls had time to bo frightened My God yelled thou sealer the boss Is parboiled For a quivering moment the whole cannery seemed horror stricken then nil rushed for the tank One woman fell In a faint and the others swept by her Dave stood as If paralyzed but with a queer look on his face that was either lunacy or amused selfposses sion There were sounds of a struggle in the lank but no cry was heard With blanched face the sealer brushed by Dave and reached for the steam valve No said Dave holding him back hints a cold lank The manager was clambering out re i jectlng courtesies He was dumb pale unreconciled It was his weakness to take himself too seriously If nobody else laughs at him a man should Jolly himself once in a while There was only one Utter and It came from time labelling shed The manager turned colored bit his lip and wrung out his brown side whiskers The one word of lire escaped him and he hurried hur-ried off the pink shirt clinging to him Ilko a shiny sticker on a can When the new pie label came out It was decorated with a striking figure of a mounlan lion showing his teelh and crouching for a spring which was at once businesslike and appetizing the manager said to the artist Jessie Dave whispered as they sat on the porch one September even lag after she had put on the ring would It have been any different if there hadnt been any quake Jesslo laughed Who knows she evaded Jessie was always rather clus lye but Dave caught her In his arms and took several satisfactory answers Argonaut |