"There now! I'm wrong! I know I'm wrong—speaking like that to him before the children. But it's hard to be patient. Your husband's at work still, ain't he?"
"He's at work, and he'll be at work as long as ever he can. If many more go out in the town, the works may have to stop for want of men to keep them going. But John 'll only stop if he's obliged. He won't go out with the rest."
"They won't like that," said Martha.
"Maybe not," Mrs. Holdfast said quietly. "He's had a warning already."
"A warning from the strikers!" Martha's eyes grew round. She wondered at Mrs. Holdfast's composure.
"Yes; but he says he don't see that one sort of tyranny is better than another. If he's a freeborn Englishman, he's got a right to work as long as he will, and the others haven't power to forbid him. That's what John says."
Martha sighed. "They haven't no right," she said. "But as for power—if I was you, I should be all in a fright for him."
"It's no manner of use expecting troubles till they come," said Mrs. Holdfast.
