"It's a queer thing now—come to think of it!—A werry queer and extraordinary thing, to see all these able-bodied fellows hanging about idle for weeks an' weeks, an' bringing their families to the brink o' starwation—and for why? 'Cause they're told! That's why! Peter Pope tells 'em to do it, and they does it! Not as they wants to do it, most of 'em! There's hundreds this minute as 'ud be glad and thankful to give in, an' be at work again! But no! They're bid to hold out, and hold out they will. They'll hold out, and they'll do all they can to make others hold out, and maybe punish them as don't."
"And all the while they're sick at heart, poor fellows, knowing; all they've lost an' must lose, and knowing the misery at home! Supposing the masters do give way. What then! Think a bit of a rise in their wages 'll ever make up for what they've gone through these weeks? Not it! An' the men knows that—many of 'em—as well as I do; for they've sense down below. But they haven't the courage to speak out, nor to act for themselves. Talk of independence! They're like a flock of sheep, everybody a-running after the rest."
"Yes, it is a werry queer state of things indeed. But if it hadn't ha' been for that there accident, I'd ha' been among 'em now, scuttling after Pope, like to the rest."
"'Tain't so amazin' the members of a Union holding out when they're bid. Whether it's wise or foolish orders they has, and whatever they thinks privately, they gets an allowance, and they're helped through. But it's mighty queer to see them hundreds of men who don't belong to no Union, nor don't get a penny from it saving by way of charity, all knuckling down alike. Werry advantageous for Pope! It's a fine increase of income as he's been getting all through the strike, which 'll stop when the strike stops."
"So it ain't surprising that Peter Pope is sort of anxious to keep the strike a-going! And it ain't so werry surprising that the unionists shouldn't mind a bit longer holiday, an' being kept without havin' to work for their living. But it's most surprising an' altogether remarkable, when a lot of poor starving chaps, who don't get no extra income nor don't belong to no Union, should be so wonderful ready to do just as they're bid, and take the bread out of their children's mouth's to put jam an' pastry into Peter Pope's mouth! Don't seem fair on the children, though!"
[CHAPTER XI.]
BABY HARRY.
"NO Sunday dinner to-morrow, mother," said Bobbie, late in the afternoon of a cold and wintry day. "I wish there was."