"So they would, if they was all like my John," said Mrs. Holdfast, with pardonable pride. "But there's where it is. He reads and learns, while other folks talk."
Martha found no comfort in the thought of John Holdfast's superiority.
"See here—" she said, looking round—"all the little comforts we've been getting together, when we could spare a sixpence or a shilling. And they'll all go now. I won't say but what Roger's been a good husband in the main, letting alone that he's so easy led. He does care for the children, and he brings home his wages more regular than most—if he wasn't so fond of a day's holiday, when he ought to be at work. Talk of short hours! He's never in no danger of overdoing hisself. But that's the way with the men. I wonder whatever 'd happen if we women was to strike for short hours, and knock off work, and leave things to take care of themselves."
Mrs. Holdfast shook her head dubiously. She saw that it was a relief to Martha to pour out.
"I'm sure I've toiled day and night for him and children, and never wanted to complain. Roger has had a clean home, and his clothes mended, and his Sunday dinners as good as the best of them. And I'd just begun to think of laying by something against a rainy day. And here's the end of it all."
"Maybe the strike won't last long."
"Don't tell me that! You don't think so. Get a wrong notion into a man's head, and he'll stick to it like beeswax. They're made up of selfishness, down to their shoes; and that's what it is! And Roger like the rest! As if four days of work in the week wasn't little enough for a great strong man like him—and I'm sure it's seldom he does more. As if he couldn't put up patiently with less wages and more work for a while, sooner than see his wife and children starve before his eyes."
"You're talking a lot of nonsense! Like a woman," said Stevens, standing in the doorway. "You don't know nothing about the matter, and that's a fact! It's our rights that's got to be considered, Pope says. We're striking for our rights!"
"I don't care for nobody's rights nor for Mr. Pope neither, so as I've bread to put in the children's mouths," sobbed Martha. "Do you think I don't know what you're bringing us to? I hope I am talking like a woman! I wouldn't wish to do anything else. I wouldn't wish to talk like the men—a set of lazy creatures, with never a thought except for their own comfort."
Stevens walked off, and Martha looked up pitifully.