"Are you going to do for her?" asked the nurse bluntly when Geo returned.
"I s'pose so," answered Geo in the same way.
"Well, I'll call in some time again this afternoon. You need not stop with her all day, but you must come in and out; and give her nothing but milk, but plenty of it. But can you be spared from your work? Oh," as Geo hesitated, "I forgot."
Geo saw she had already heard about him. It was unnecessary to explain.
"I'll due wot yue say," he said simply, opening the door and letting her out; and then he went back to his mother, who spoke gratefully of the nurse and seemed glad of her help.
CHAPTER XI.
THE STRIKE AT THE WELL
One would have thought that so excellent a work as the digging of the wells would be allowed to go on quietly, but unfortunately the fact that the scheme happened to have been originated by the vicar and the doctor was enough to make some people condemn it; and we all know, when once the thin end of the wedge of discontent and distrust has forced its way into anything, how difficult—nay, how often impossible—it is to dislodge it. And so it was that the men at the railway well, when they had dug to the depth of nearly fifty feet and had found no water, began to get impatient and disheartened. Most of the wells in Willowton were not more than thirty or forty feet deep, and were fed, of course, chiefly by surface drainage; hence their deadly poison. These new wells were on the higher ground above the village, and naturally water was to be found there only at a deeper level; but these men either would not or could not take this in. Two of them had had very little experience whatever in the work, and like all novices, they looked for immediate results; and when these were not forthcoming, they grumbled at the dowser, their employers, and everything else. Their evil counsellors advised a strike for higher wages than the unprecedented amount they were already receiving, and so it happened that one hot morning, when the vicar went up to see how they were progressing, he found the well deserted, and no signs of the men anywhere. He walked up to it and looked in. It was partially covered with planks in the usual way, apparently just as they had left it the night before. He was puzzled. The men had apparently struck. But why? he asked himself. And nothing he could recall threw any light upon the matter.
"That is the worst," he thought "of employing irregular workmen." But it had been impossible at such short notice to procure all professional well-sinkers, and he had thought himself very fortunate to have secured two, one for each well; while all the men, except Chapman, had seen the work going on at various farms in the neighbourhood, if they had not actually assisted. They were perfectly well aware of the nature of the work; they had volunteered for it, and gone at it cheerfully enough. The strike was altogether inexplicable.
The vicar paid his visit to the Union, and an hour later came on to the bridge, where he saw all four men seated on the parapet, smoking, and talking loudly and ostentatiously, as if they wished to engage the attention of the passers-by. They were a rough-looking gang, however, and nobody seemed inclined to stop. Curiously enough, neither Corkam nor Farley was present.