Captain Mayo strode up and down the porch and muttered some emphatic
opinions in regard to the intellects and doings of rulers.
"You see, I know the sort of people who live on that island, Miss
Candage. I have seen other cases alongshore. They are blamed for what
they don't know--and what they are led into. Amateur missionaries will
load them down in a spasm of summer generosity with a lot of truck
and make them think that the world owes them a living. The poor
devils haven't wit enough to look ahead. When it comes winter they are
starving--and when children are hungry and cold a man will tackle a
proposition that is more dangerous than a summer cottage locked up for
the winter. Next comes along some chap like that state agent, who prides
himself on being straight business and no favors! He puts the screws to
'em! There's nobody to help those folks in the real and the right way. I
pity them!"
"I live in the country and I know how unfeeling the boards of selectmen
are in many of the pauper cases. When it's a matter of saving money for
the voters and making a good town record, they don't care much how poor
folks get along."
Mayo continued to patrol the porch. "I'm in a rather rebellious state of
mind just now, I reckon," he admitted. "Seems to me that a lot of
folks, including myself, are getting kicked. I'm smarting! I have
a fellow-feeling for the oppressed." He laughed, but there was no
merriment in his tones. "It's the little children who will suffer most
in this, Miss Candage," he went on. "They are not to blame--they don't
understand."
"And of course nothing can be done."
"Nothing sensible, I'm afraid." He walked to and fro for many minutes.
"You see, it's none of my business," he commented, when he came and sat
down beside her.
"I suppose there's not one man in the world to step forward and say a
good word for them," said the girl, softly, uttering her thoughts.
"Words wouldn't amount to anything--with the machinery of the state
grinding away so merrily as it is. But this matter is stirring my
curiosity a little, Miss Candage. That's because I am one of the
oppressed myself, I reckon." Again his mirthless chuckle. "I intended to
take the stage out of here in the morning, but I have an idea that I'll
stay over and see what happens when that gentleman who represents our
grand old state proceeds to scatter those folks to the four winds."