Annie Kilburn

Mr. Gerrish bowed his acknowledgments of the honour done his wife, with a

gravity which she misinterpreted.

"I think," she began, with her censorious manner and accent, "that these

people have too much done for them _now_. They're perfectly spoiled.

Don't you, Annie?"

Mr. Gerrish did not give Annie time to answer. "I differ with you, my

dear," he cut in. "It is my opinion--Or I don't know but you wish to

confine this matter entirely to the ladies?" he suggested to Mrs. Munger.

"Oh, I'm only too proud and glad that you feel interested in the matter!"

cried Mrs. Munger. "Without the gentlemen's practical views, we ladies are

such feeble folk--mere conies in the rocks."

"I am as much opposed as Mrs. Gerrish--or any one--to acceding to unjust

demands on the part of my clerks or other employees," Mr. Gerrish began.

"Yes, that's what I mean," said his wife, and broke down with a giggle.

He went on, without regarding her: "I have always made it a rule, as far as

business went, to keep my own affairs entirely in my own hands. I fix the

hours, and I fix the wages, and I fix all the other conditions, and I say

plainly, 'If you don't like them, 'don't come,' or 'don't stay,' and I

never have any difficulty."

"I'm sure," said Mrs. Munger, "that if all the employers in the country

would take such a stand, there would soon be an end of labour troubles. I

think we're too concessive."

"And I do too, Mrs. Munger!" cried Mrs. Gerrish, glad of the occasion to be

censorious and of the finer lady's opinion at the same time. "That's what I

meant. Don't you, Annie?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand exactly," Annie replied.

Mr. Gerrish kept his eye on Mrs. Munger's face, now arranged for indefinite

photography, as he went on. "That is exactly what I say to them. That is

what I said to Mr. Marvin one year ago, when he had that trouble in his

shoe shop. I said, 'You're too concessive.' I said, 'Mr. Marvin, if you

give those fellows an inch, they'll take an ell. Mr. Marvin,' said I,

'you've got to begin by being your own master, if you want to be master of

anybody else. You've got to put your foot down, as Mr. Lincoln said; and as

_I_ say, you've got to _keep_ it down.'"

Mrs. Gerrish looked at the other ladies for admiration, and Mrs. Munger

said, rapidly, without disarranging her face-"Oh yes. And how much _misery_ could be saved in such cases by a

little firmness at the outset!"