At a signal from the chairman the orchestra began to play a song entitled "Bankerdom." It was sung by a quartette of clerks, and afterwards by the Assembly, who were provided with printed copies. The refrain went:
"O Bankerdom, dear Bankerdom,
We sing to thee a freedom-song;
The years have gone that knew us dumb,—
The years we found so hard and long;
And here to-day is taken from
Our aching wrists the silver thong
That bound us to a monied wrong,
Our Bankerdom, free Bankerdom!"
About five o'clock the afternoon session was adjourned.
A. P.'s father, who was quite a plunger when he came to town, persuaded the Nelsons to dine with him at a first-class hotel. Evan could not go along; he had accepted an invitation to dine at Mrs. Greig's.
Sam Robb was ill—that accounted for his absence from the mass meeting in the afternoon. Evan had been to see him a few days before, but Robb was too sick to talk. Now he was downstairs in carpet slippers, and looked pretty well.
"How did it come off?" was his salutation.
Evan described the whole affair, to the ex-manager's extreme satisfaction. Before they had been conversing long he asked frankly,
"Are you still slaving away?"
"Yes," sighed Robb; "but the union will help us boys."
"Why do you smile, Mrs. Greig?" asked Nelson, himself smiling. She looked at Robb before answering.