'Hamper's men are actually out. Mine are working out their week,

through fear of being prosecuted for breach of contract I'd have

had every one of them up and punished for it, that left his work

before his time was out.' 'The law expenses would have been more than the hands them selves

were worth--a set of ungrateful naughts!' said his mother.

'To be sure. But I'd have shown them how I keep my word, and how

I mean them to keep theirs. They know me by this time. Slickson's

men are off--pretty certain he won't spend money in getting them

punished. We're in for a turn-out, mother.' 'I hope there are not many orders in hand?' 'Of course there are. They know that well enough. But they don't

quite understand all, though they think they do.' 'What do you mean, John?' Candles had been brought, and Fanny had taken up her interminable

piece of worsted-work, over which she was yawning; throwing

herself back in her chair, from time to time, to gaze at vacancy,

and think of nothing at her ease.

'Why,' said he, 'the Americans are getting their yarns so into

the general market, that our only chance is producing them at a

lower rate. If we can't, we may shut up shop at once, and hands

and masters go alike on tramp. Yet these fools go back to the

prices paid three years ago--nay, some of their leaders quote

Dickinson's prices now--though they know as well as we do that,

what with fines pressed out of their wages as no honourable man

would extort them, and other ways which I for one would scorn to

use, the real rate of wage paid at Dickinson's is less than at

ours. Upon my word, mother, I wish the old combination-laws were

in force. It is too bad to find out that fools--ignorant wayward

men like these--just by uniting their weak silly heads, are to

rule over the fortunes of those who bring all the wisdom that

knowledge and experience, and often painful thought and anxiety,

can give. The next thing will be--indeed, we're all but come to

it now--that we shall have to go and ask--stand hat in hand--and

humbly ask the secretary of the Spinner' Union to be so kind as

to furnish us with labour at their own price. That's what they

want--they, who haven't the sense to see that, if we don't get a

fair share of the profits to compensate us for our wear and tear

here in England, we can move off to some other country; and that,

what with home and foreign competition, we are none of us likely

to make above a fair share, and may be thankful enough if we can

get that, in an average number of years.' 'Can't you get hands from Ireland? I wouldn't keep these fellows

a day. I'd teach them that I was master, and could employ what

servants I liked.' 'Yes! to be sure, I can; and I will, too, if they go on long. It

will be trouble and expense, and I fear there will be some

danger; but I will do it, rather than give in.' 'If there is to be all this extra expense, I'm sorry we're giving

a dinner just now.' 'So am I,--not because of the expense, but because I shall have

much to think about, and many unexpected calls on my time. But we

must have had Mr. Horsfall, and he does not stay in Milton long.

And as for the others, we owe them dinners, and it's all one

trouble.' He kept on with his restless walk--not speaking any more, but

drawing a deep breath from time to time, as if endeavouring to

throw off some annoying thought. Fanny asked her mother numerous

small questions, all having nothing to do with the subject, which

a wiser person would have perceived was occupying her attention.

Consequently, she received many short answers. She was not sorry

when, at ten o'clock, the servants filed in to prayers. These her

mother always read,--first reading a chapter. They were now

working steadily through the Old Testament. When prayers were

ended, and his mother had wished him goodnight, with that long

steady look of hers which conveyed no expression of the

tenderness that was in her heart, but yet had the intensity of a

blessing, Mr. Thornton continued his walk. All his business plans

had received a check, a sudden pull-up, from this approaching

turn-out. The forethought of many anxious hours was thrown away,

utterly wasted by their insane folly, which would injure

themselves even more than him, though no one could set any limit

to the mischief they were doing. And these were the men who

thought themselves fitted to direct the masters in the disposal

of their capital! Hamper had said, only this very day, that if he

were ruined by the strike, he would start life again, comforted

by the conviction that those who brought it on were in a worse

predicament than he himself,--for he had head as well as hands,

while they had only hands; and if they drove away their market,

they could not follow it, nor turn to anything else. But this

thought was no consolation to Mr. Thornton. It might be that

revenge gave him no pleasure; it might be that he valued the

position he had earned with the sweat of his brow, so much that

he keenly felt its being endangered by the ignorance or folly of

others,--so keenly that he had no thoughts to spare for what

would be the consequences of their conduct to themselves. He

paced up and down, setting his teeth a little now and then. At

last it struck two. The candles were flickering in their sockets.

He lighted his own, muttering to himself: 'Once for all, they shall know whom they have got to deal with. I

can give them a fortnight,--no more. If they don't see their

madness before the end of that time, I must have hands from

Ireland. I believe it's Slickson's doing,--confound him and his

dodges! He thought he was overstocked; so he seemed to yield at

first, when the deputation came to him,--and of course, he only

confirmed them in their folly, as he meant to do. That's where it

spread from.'




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