'And what are the Union's ways and means?' He looked up at her, as if on' the point of dogged resistance to
her wish for information. But her calm face, fixed on his,
patient and trustful, compelled him to answer.
'Well! If a man doesn't belong to th' Union, them as works next
looms has orders not to speak to him--if he's sorry or ill it's
a' the same; he's out o' bounds; he's none o' us; he comes among
us, he works among us, but he's none o' us. I' some places them's
fined who speaks to him. Yo' try that, miss; try living a year or
two among them as looks away if yo' look at 'em; try working
within two yards o' crowds o' men, who, yo' know, have a grinding
grudge at yo' in their hearts--to whom if yo' say yo'r glad, not
an eye brightens, nor a lip moves,--to whom if your heart's
heavy, yo' can never say nought, because they'll ne'er take
notice on your sighs or sad looks (and a man 's no man who'll
groan out loud 'bout folk asking him what 's the matter?)--just
yo' try that, miss--ten hours for three hundred days, and yo'll
know a bit what th' Union is.' 'Why!' said Margaret, 'what tyranny this is! Nay, Higgins, I
don't care one straw for your anger. I know you can't be angry
with me if you would, and I must tell you the truth: that I never
read, in all the history I have read, of a more slow, lingering
torture than this. And you belong to the Union! And you talk of
the tyranny of the masters!' 'Nay,' said Higgins, 'yo' may say what yo' like! The dead stand
between yo and every angry word o' mine. D' ye think I forget
who's lying there , and how hoo loved yo'? And it's th' masters
as has made us sin, if th' Union is a sin. Not this generation
maybe, but their fathers. Their fathers ground our fathers to the
very dust; ground us to powder! Parson! I reckon, I've heerd my
mother read out a text, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and
th' children's teeth are set on edge." It's so wi' them. In those
days of sore oppression th' Unions began; it were a necessity.
It's a necessity now, according to me. It's a withstanding of
injustice, past, present, or to come. It may be like war; along
wi' it come crimes; but I think it were a greater crime to let it
alone. Our only chance is binding men together in one common
interest; and if some are cowards and some are fools, they mun
come along and join the great march, whose only strength is in
numbers.' 'Oh!' said Mr. Hale, sighing, 'your Union in itself would be
beautiful, glorious,--it would be Christianity itself--if it were
but for an end which affected the good of all, instead of that of
merely one class as opposed to another.' 'I reckon it's time for me to be going, sir,' said Higgins, as
the clock struck ten.