"Oh Bessy! you may come and welcome; but don"t talk so--it reallymakes me sorry. It does indeed."
"Then I"ll keep it to mysel", if I bite my tongue out. Not but what it"s truefor all that."
Margaret was silent. At last she said,"Let us talk about it sometimes, if you think it true. But not now. Tellme, has your father turned out?"
"Ay!" said Bessy, heavily--in a manner very different from that she hadspoken in but a minute or two before. "He and many another,--allHamper"s men,--and many a one besides. Th" women are as bad as th"
men, in their savageness, this time. Food is high,--and they mun havefood for their childer, I reckon. Suppose Thorntons sent "em their dinnerout,--th" same money, spent on potatoes and meal, would keep many acrying babby quiet, and hush up its mother"s heart for a bit!"
"Don"t speak so!" said Margaret. "You"ll make me feel wicked and guilty in going to this dinner."
"No!" said Bessy. "Some"s pre-elected to sumptuous feasts, and purpleand fine linen,--may be yo"re one on "em. Others toil and moil all theirlives long--and the very dogs are not pitiful in our days, as they were inthe days of Lazarus. But if yo" ask me to cool yo"r tongue wi" th" tip ofmy finger, I"ll come across the great gulf to yo" just for th" thought o"
what yo"ve been to me here."
"Bessy! you"re very feverish! I can tell it in the touch of your hand, aswell as in what you"re saying. It won"t be division enough, in that awfulday, that some of us have been beggars here, and some of us have beenrich,--we shall not be judged by that poor accident, but by our faithfulfollowing of Christ."
Margaret got up, and found some water and soaking her pocket-handkerchief in it, she laid the cool wetness on Bessy"s forehead, andbegan to chafe the stone-cold feet. Bessy shut her eyes, and allowedherself to be soothed. At last she said,"Yo"d ha" been deaved out o" yo"r five wits, as well as me, if yo"d had onebody after another coming in to ask for father, and staying to tell meeach one their tale. Some spoke o" deadly hatred, and made my bloodrun cold wi" the terrible things they said o" th" masters,--but more, beingwomen, kept plaining, plaining (wi" the tears running down theircheeks, and never wiped away, nor heeded), of the price o" meat, andhow their childer could na sleep at nights for th" hunger."
"And do they think the strike will mend this?" asked Margaret.
"They say so," replied Bessy. "They do say trade has been good for long,and the masters has made no end o" money; how much father doesn"tknow, but, in course, th" Union does; and, as is natural, they wantentheir share o" th" profits, now that food is getting dear; and th" Unionsays they"ll not be doing their duty if they don"t make the masters give"em their share. But masters has getten th" upper hand somehow; and I"mfeared they"ll keep it now and evermore. It"s like th" great battle o"
Armageddon, the way they keep on, grinning and fighting at each other,till even while they fight, they are picked off into the pit."
Just then, Nicholas Higgins came in. He caught his daughter"s lastwords.
"Ay! and I"ll fight on too; and I"ll get it this time. It"ll not take long for tomake "em give in, for they"ve getten a pretty lot of orders, all undercontract; and they"ll soon find out they"d better give us our five per centthan lose the profit they"ll gain; let alone the fine for not fulfilling thecontract. Aha, my masters! I know who"ll win."
Margaret fancied from his manner that he must have been drinking, notso much from what he said, as from the excited way in which he spoke;and she was rather confirmed in this idea by the evident anxiety Bessy showed to hasten her departure. Bessy said to her,-"
The twenty-first--that"s Thursday week. I may come and see yo" dressedfor Thornton"s, I reckon. What time is yo"r dinner?"
Before Margaret could answer, Higgins broke out,"Thornton"s! Ar" t" going to dine at Thornton"s? Ask him to give yo" abumper to the success of his orders. By th" twenty-first, I reckon, he"llbe pottered in his brains how to get "em done in time. Tell him, there"sseven hundred"ll come marching into Marlborough Mills, the morningafter he gives the five per cent, and will help him through his contract inno time. You"ll have "em all there. My master, Hamper. He"s one o" th"
oud-fashioned sort. Ne"er meets a man bout an oath or a curse; I shouldthink he were going to die if he spoke me civil; but arter all, his bark"swaur than his bite, and yo" may tell him one o" his turn-outs said so, ifyo" like. Eh! but yo"ll have a lot of prize mill-owners at Thornton"s! Ishould like to get speech o" them, when they"re a bit inclined to sit stillafter dinner, and could na run for the life on "em. I"d tell "em my mind.
I"d speak up again th" hard way they"re driving on us!"
"Good-bye!" said Margaret, hastily. "Good-bye, Bessy! I shall look to seeyou on the twenty-first, if you"re well enough."
The medicines and treatment which Dr. Donaldson had ordered for Mrs.
Hale, did her so much good at first that not only she herself, butMargaret, began to hope that he might have been mistaken, and that shecould recover permanently. As for Mr. Hale, although he had never hadan idea of the serious nature of their apprehensions, he triumphed overtheir fears with an evident relief, which proved how much his glimpseinto the nature of them had affected him. Only Dixon croaked for everinto Margaret"s ear. However, Margaret defied the raven, and wouldhope.
