But to her surprise, he only said in a low tone, "Thank God for his goodness," and then went to the stranger again and resumed his talk once more.
Mrs. Chaplin thought he must be mad not to hurry back with her, and stood there impatiently enough until the stranger went away, and then she went to her husband again.
"Are you coming?" she asked in a cross tone.
"I can't, mother; didn't they tell you I am on picket duty?"
"Picket nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Chaplin, losing all patience with her husband now. "Come along home and let us arrange how you are to go down to the country. You ought to go this afternoon or to-morrow morning early."
"To-morrow morning will do, I should think," said Chaplin anxiously. "You see, I can't get away from here until someone comes to take my place."
"Well, there are plenty to do that, I should think," replied his wife, who was anxious that her husband should go and secure this good fortune for himself.
"Yes, yes, there are plenty of men about as you say; but look here, we want to keep strangers from going to take our work, and to do that somebody must be at hand to talk to any stranger who would go in, just to tell them what we are holding out for and persuade them to go home again. But, don't you see, we have to be very careful how we do this, for if we got in a passion over it, there might be fighting, and then we should get into the hands of the police. They know what we are doing well enough, but so long as we are peaceable, they don't interfere; but if we gave them any trouble, we should get three months, and that might be the beginning of a row all round. The committee know the men pretty well by this time, and as they have appointed me to this duty till four o'clock this afternoon, here I must stay."
"I'll send Brown down to take your place," said Mrs. Chaplin.
"Brown won't come, and I shouldn't leave if he did," replied the man with something like a smile parting his thin lips.