Burnham Breaker

Coal dust and circus posters pull the young workers of Scranton in opposite directions at the opening of Homer Greene's novel. In the screen-room of Burnham Breaker, boys spend long days picking slate and stone from streams of coal while machinery fills the air with noise. Their employer, Robert Burnham, rewards their loyalty with an afternoon at the circus. The scene places childhood pleasures beside the demands of earning a living in Pennsylvania's mining district.

The story also follows Ralph, a boy whose hopes of family life are bound up with a legal case. After visiting Mrs. Burnham, he describes the warmth of her home to Bachelor Billy, who treats him with affection but distrusts the lawyer Sharpman. Written for younger readers, the novel offers an industrial setting alongside questions of belonging, trust and responsibility, with the contrast between a dusty workplace and a welcoming household giving those concerns a concrete shape.