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Mine Rats
- University of Arkansas Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Mine Rats They’re always behind you just beyond the light— hugging the coal rib and cribbing timbers, squeezing in and out of cracks, searching for what’s been lost or discarded: trolley wire, safety tags, fuses, canary feathers. Once, in a dynamite box, a miner found a nest made of chewed scripture and company scrip. A quick turn or yawn and you might catch one in your headlamp’s glare on the shaft collar or tucked in a kerf sitting back on its haunches, eyes burning coal, spit-shining its face with licked palms. One old-timer still pitches pie crust to shadows. He says the rats 31 can feel Mary Lee #1 shudder, hear roof chocks buckling under her weight, and when it happens, he will follow dragging tails and grinding teeth out of the shadows, down the chosen path. 32 ...